New Horizons in Insect Science Towards Sustainable Pest Management

71

Chitinase Expressed as an Inducible

Trait in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Schröter P-15

Noushad Parvez, Leena Pathak, Ankit Patel, Deepak Pan-

patte, Ritesh Inamake, Kuldeep Khatri and Janardan Jani

A. K. Chakravarthy (ed.), New Horizons in Insect Science: Towards Sustainable Pest Management,
DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-2089-3_8, © Springer India 2015

N. Parvez () · L. Pathak · A. Patel · D. Panpatte ·
R. Inamake · K. Khatri · J. Jani
Biological Control Research Laboratory, Anand Agricul-
tural University, Anand 388 110, Gujarat, India
e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Extracellular chitinases play a significant role to stipulate the bioefficacy

level of native Pseudomonas isolates against Fusarium udum and Spodop-

tera litura Fab. Present exertion is to confirm whether extracellular chi-

tinase production is considered as an inducible biocontrol trait in Pseudo-

monas spp. Pseudomonas aeruginosa p-15 showed maximum chitinase

activity in King’s B broth 3.75 U/ml among all seven chitinase positive

native isolates from Anand, Gujarat. Enhanced chitinase activity by 28.0,

15.2, and 8.0 % was observed after 84 h when broth was amended with

1.5 % of colloidal chitin, dry powder of tyndallized Fusarium udum and

Spodoptera litura (third instar), respectively. The components of King’s

B medium were modified and used for chitinase expression as optimized

using response surface methodology (RSM) for the responses such as col-

ony count, chitinase activity, and biocontrol activity. These efforts suggest

chitinase as an inducible trait in Pseudomonas aeruginosa p-15.

Keywords

Chitinase · Inducible trait · Pseudomonas aeruginosa

of plant disease; however, they are costly, can

cause environmental pollution, and may induce

pathogen resistance. Microbial products are espe-

cially valuable because their toxicity to nontarget

animals and humans is extremely low. They are

safe for both the user and consumers of treated

crops compared to other commonly used chemi-

cals (Prakob et al. 2009 ). Fluorescent pseudo-

monads, particularly Pseudomonas aeruginosa,

P. putida, and P. fluorescens, which are common-

ly isolated from the plant rhizosphere, have been

shown to protect plants from nematodes, insect

attack, and fungal infection. P. aeruginosa strains

Introduction

Conventional synthetic chemical pesticides have
long served as agents for reducing the incidence