Rhizoctonia solani is the causative agent of rice sheath blight disease. In a previous study, we found that the growth of R. solani was inhibited by Burkholderia seminalis strain R456. Therefore, the present study was conducted to identify the genes involved in the antifungal activity of B. seminalis strain R456 by using a Tn5 transposon mutation method. Firstly, we constructed a random insertion transposon library of 997 mutants, out of which 11 mutants showed the defective antifungal activity against R. solani. Furthermore, the 10 antagonism-related genes were successfully identified based on analysis of the Tn5 transposon insertion site. Indeed, this result indicated that three mutants were inserted on an indigenous plasmid in which the same insertion site was observed in two mutants. In addition, the remaining eight mutants were inserted on different genes encoding glycosyl transferase, histone H1, nonribosomal peptide synthetase, methyltransferase, MnmG, sulfate export transporter, catalase/peroxidase HPI and CysD, respectively. Compared to the wild type, the 11 mutants showed a differential effect in bacteriological characteristics such as cell growth, biofilm formation and response to H2O2 stress, revealing the complexity of action mode of these antagonism-related genes. However, a significant reduction of cell motility was observed in the 11 mutants compared to the wild type. Therefore, it can be inferred that the antifungal mechanism of the 10 above-mentioned genes may be, at least partially, due to the weakness of cell motility. Overall, the result of this study will be helpful for us to understand the biocontrol mechanism of this bacterium.
Keywords: Burkholderia seminalis; Rhizoctonia solani; Tn5; antagonism; rice sheath blight.