The present study was carried out to screen the phylloplane bacteria
from tea for antagonism against grey blight caused by Pestalotiopsis theae and
blister bight caused by Exobasidium vexans and to further evaluate the efficient
isolates for disease control potential under field condition.
Methods and Results: A total of 316 morphologically different phylloplane
bacteria were isolated. Among the antagonists, the isolates designated as BMO-
075, BMO-111 and BMO-147 exhibited maximum inhibitory activity against
both the pathogens under in vitro conditions and hence were selected for
further evaluation under microplot field trial. Foliar application of 36-h-old
culture of BMO-111 (1 9 108
colony-forming units ml
1
) significantly
reduced the blister blight disease incidence than the other isolates. The culture
of BMO-111 as well as its culture filtrate effectively inhibited the mycelial
growth of various fungal plant pathogens. The isolate BMO-111 was identified
as Ochrobactrum anthropi based on the morphological and 16S rDNA sequence
analyses.