Introduction
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the world’slargest vegetable crops, and is known as a protective food because of its special nutritive value. It provides a major source of min-erals and vitamins, in addition to being regarded as an anticanceragent [1]. Tomato is also an important crop known to harbor severalmicroorganisms with root colonizing ability which directly or indi-rectly influence the soil’s health through their beneficial activities,resulting in enhanced plant growth and protection [2,3]. The earlyblight disease of tomato is one of the most common and devastatingdiseases caused by Alternaria solani. The disease largely affects thefoliage, stem and fruits of tomato plants, resulting in severe defo-liation, decreased yield and fruit quality [4]. Till date, there are nosuitable commercial tomato varieties available that are resistant toearly blight disease