Analysis of the Rhizosphere Bacterial Communities in Oil Palm Soil and Screen for Potential Biological Control Candidates for Basal Stem Rot Disease

Tang, Zhen Hao (2018) Analysis of the Rhizosphere Bacterial Communities in Oil Palm Soil and Screen for Potential Biological Control Candidates for Basal Stem Rot Disease. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is known as golden crop in Malaysia. However, the oil palm industry is also plagued by Basal Stem Rot (BSR) disease caused by Ganoderma boninense fungus. Hence, the objectives of this study were to isolate the bacterial communities from the oil palm soil and evaluate their potential as biological control agent for the BSR disease. Soil samples were obtained from an oil palm plantation in Teluk Intan, Perak owned by United Plantations. Bracts of the G. boninense fungus were also obtained for isolation of the causal agent. The beneficial microbes targeted for this study are from Pseudomonas sp., Bacillus sp. and Actinomycetes groups and isolations were performed using selective agar media. A total number of 27 bacteria were successfully isolated in this study and namely from 7 Pseudomonas sp., 10 Bacillus sp. and 10 Actinomycetes. Isolated bacteria were subjected to antagonistic tests against the BSR causal agent G. boninense. The antagonistic tests were performed using dual culture challenge test and poison agar test. Of the total number of 27 bacteria tested, there are four bacterial isolates shown inhibitory effects towards the G. boninense fungus on the dual culture challenge test. The inhibition of BSR fungus by the bacteria were assessed based on the percentage inhibition of radial growth (PIRG). The four bacteria namely 33, P3, 011 and 90 have shown the PIRG of 48.51, 48.55, 64.92 and 68.54 respectively. The poison agar test has yielded non-conclusive results. The identity of the four promising bacterial isolates will be identified via molecular means and the identification results will be included in the thesis. This study has shown that there are potential antagonistic microorganisms in the soil towards BSR disease. Field trials will be needed in future for to further confirm the suppressiveness of these four isolates.