Biological Control of Tomato Gray Mold Caused by Botrytis Cinerea with the Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium Anisopliae

Gray mold disease caused by is a devastating disease that leads to serious financial loss. In this study, the entomopathogenic fungus that acts against the gray mold pathogen was evaluated. produced a significant inhibition zone in front of the colony in the dual culture test. In addition, volatile organic compounds generated by were shown to have an inhibitory effect on mycelia growth and reduced 41% of gray mold severity of postharvest tomatoes. The 10% concentration of the culture filtrate of inhibited 88.62% of colony radial growth as well as 63.85% of sclerotia germination and all conidia germination of . Furthermore, the culture filtrate of retained its inhibitory effect against the radial growth of even after heating for 15 min at 100 °C. Feasible mechanisms of involved in the control of were explored, and it was demonstrated that the plasma membrane of conidia was damaged by the product of metabolism of . In addition, after treating with culture filtrate of , the phenotype was shown to be abnormal, and cell organelles of mycelia were damaged significantly. A significant control efficacy of against tomato gray mold was detected on both the detached leaf assay (84.24%) as well as the whole plant (72.38%). In addition, a 78% reduction in tomato fruit mold was detected at a 10% treated concentration of . These findings suggest that possesses potential as a biocontrol agent against tomato gray mold in the greenhouse and during the postharvest stage.