Isolation and characterization of antifungal violacein producing bacterium Collimonas sp. DEC-B5

Forty-nine pigments were extracted from the collections of 106 pigment producing bacteria from the plant rhizosphere soil. Antibacterial activity test was performed in the subjects of the extracted pigments with plant pathogenic bacteria including Xanthomonas axonopodis and Xanthomonas campestris, and with plant pathogenic fungi including Botrytis cinerea, Colletotrichum acutatum, and Fusarium oxysporum. The yellow pigment by Chryseobacterium sp. RBR9 and the red pigment by of Methylobacterium sp. RI13 showed the antibacterial activities against Xanthomonas axonopodis and Xanthomonas campestris. The violet pigment by Collimonas sp. DEC-B5 showed the antibacterial activity as well as the antifungal activities against Botrytis cinerea and Fusarium oxysporum. Especially, the violet pigment inhibited the growth of Botrytis cinerea more than 65% at MIC 20 ??M. Upon the HPLC analysis result for the isolation of pigment with antifungal activity, violacein (91.6%) and deoxyviolacein (8.4%) were isolated for the pigment by Collimonas sp. DEC-B5. The production amount of the pigment was increased more than 10 times higher when D-mannitol 1.5% and yeast extract 0.2% were added as the nitrogen source to SCB medium. This study suggests that produced violacein by Collimonas sp. DEC-B5 will be effective to control strawberry gray-mold rot fungi by its preventive activity.clos