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POSTERS: Biological control

A Bacterial Isolate Shows Promise as a Biofungicide for Sclerotinia Stem Rot Disease on Canola
Abdulsalam Dakouri - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Chris Kirby- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Annika Briggs- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Tim Dumonceaux- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Jacob John- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Chrystel Olivier- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Jennifer Ad

Sclerotinia stem rot, caused by the pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, poses a serious threat to canola production worldwide. Due to lack of strong genetic resistance to Sclerotinia, biocontrol is the best alternative and an environmentally friendly strategy to manage the disease. The aim of this research was to test the efficacy of a bacterial isolate (PENSV20) in inhibiting the germination of Sclerotinia ascospores and to understand the induced defence mechanisms involved. A highly susceptible canola cultivar ‘Westar’ was used for our experiments. Five treatments, (1)‘Westar’ × blank solution, (2)‘Westar’ × Sclerotinia alone, (3)‘Westar ‘× PENSV20 alone, (4)‘Westar’ × PENSV20 × Sclerotinia, and (5)‘Westar’ × Sclerotinia × PENSV20, with 3 biological replicates per treatment were performed. For treatments 4 and 5, PENSV20 was applied 24 hours, before and after sclerotinia spray, respectively. At 5 days post treatment, the phenotypic assessment showed severe infection on ‘Westar’ × Sclerotinia plants while no signs of infection were observed on ‘Westar’ × PENSV20× Sclerotinia and very limited stem infection on ‘Westar’ × Sclerotinia × PENSV20. RNA samples from leaf tissue are being sequenced to determine the group of genes and pathways involved in defence mechanisms in the plant globally. The level of expression of significantly differentially expressed genes over different time points will be quantified using qPCR. This work will greatly contribute toward the management of sclerotinia stem rot on canola and potentially on other crops infected by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.