Exploring the Potentiality of Novel Rhizospheric Bacterial Strains against the Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

Rice blast caused by is a major disease. In the present study, we aimed to identify and evaluate the novel bacterial isolates from rice rhizosphere for biocontrol of pathogen. Sixty bacterial strains from the rice plant's rhizosphere were tested for their biocontrol activity against under and . Among them, had significant high activity against the pathogen. The least disease severity and highest germination were recorded in seeds treated with UASBR9 (0.96 and 98.00%) compared to untreated control (3.43 and 95.00%, respectively) under condition. These isolates had high activity of enzymes in relation to growth promoting activity upon challenge inoculation of the pathogen. The potential strains were identified based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing and dominance of these particular genes were associated in strains. These strains were also confirmed for the presence of antimicrobial peptide biosynthetic genes viz., (surfactin), (fengycin), (subtilin), and (iturin) related to secondary metabolite production (e.g., AMPs). Overall, the results suggested that application of potential bacterial strains like UASBR9 not only helps in control of the biological suppression of one of the most devastating rice pathogens, but also increases plant growth along with a reduction in application of toxic chemical pesticides.