Conclusions
Results of this study have indicated that not only did B. subtilis strain ABS-S14 and its antibiotics exhibit a strong antagonistic property to P. digitatum growth, but chitosan also greatly inhibited the growth of P. digitatum both in vitro and in vivo. We havediscussed the efficiency of B. subtilis ABS-S14, and its crude extractto produce a reasonable disease reduction and enhanced mandarinPOX and PAL enzyme levels in response to pathogen attack. Theantagonistic ability of bacteria B. subtilis ABS-S14 to prevent fruitdecay was definitely relates to its ability to produce CLPs andto stimulate defense mechanisms in mandarin fruit. Finally, theresults from this study have confirmed that B. subtilis ABS-S14,its CLPs and chitosan can control green mold decay of mandarinfruit. Promising topics for further investigation include in vivoantibiotic synthesis of B. subtilis ABS-S14 after application on thepathogen inoculated fruit, and the environmental conditions forthe antagonist microorganism to produce antibiotic CLPs and actas an elicitor of defense related gene expression. These would offer further insights into the molecular events of elicitation of plant disease resistance against pathogen attack.