Abstract
Five strains of Enterobacter cloacae that are biological control agents of Pythium damping-off diseases produced the hydroxamate siderophore aerobactin under iron-limiting conditions. Genes determining aerobactin biosynthesis of the biocontrol strain E. cloacae EcCT-501 were localized to a 12.3-kb region, which conferred aerobactin production to Escherichia coli DH5α. The aerobactin biosynthesis genes of E. cloacae hybridized to those of the pCoIV- K30 plasmid of E. coli, but restriction patterns of the aerobactin regions of pCoIV-K30 and E. cloacae differed. A derivative strain with a deletion in the aerobactin biosynthesis locus was as effective as strain EcCT-501 in biological control of Pythium damping-off of cucumber. Thus, aerobactin production did not contribute significantly to the biological control activity of EcCT-501 under the conditions of this study.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4189-4197 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Applied and environmental microbiology |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1993 |
