LAUSR

Culture broth, cell pellet suspension and cell free supernatant of 14 Bacillus subtilis isolates obtained from different Egyptian locations were checked for their ability to repress egg hatching and juvenile (J2) activity of root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita under laboratory environment. Treatments using culture broth of B. subtilis isolates B10 and B8, at a concentration of 50%, recorded lowest percentages of hatched eggs reaching 44.7 and 46.3%, respectively. Culture broth of B. subtilis isolate B10 at the same concentration showed a higher percentage of juvenile mortality reached 99.7%. Batch fermentation was completed, using B. subtilis isolate B10 (Accession No. EF583055), which gave the lowest percentage of hatched eggs and the highest percentage of juvenile mortality of M. incognita, for maximizing biomass production and suppression effects of culture broth. Batch fermentation no. 2, which started in a bioreactor with optical density of 0.5, was the best process that achieved a higher cell biomass and percentage of juvenile mortality of 4.52 g/l and 74.3%, respectively, using culture broth of 5%. Under greenhouse conditions, culture broth, cell pellet suspension, and cell-free supernatant of B. subtilis isolate B10 were used to test their potential for reducing number of galls and egg masses in the roots of tomato plants. The treatment of using culture broth at a concentration 10 ml/pot, 2 × 109 cfu/ml in a soil infested with M. incognita, was highly significant in decreasing number of galls and egg masses reaching the average of 9.3 and 6.7, with reduction percentage of 81.1 and 89.5%, respectively, compared with the control treatment of M. incognita only. In addition, B. subtilis isolate B10 was formulated and applied as bionematicide to test its efficiency in reducing number of galls and egg masses. Treatment with bioformulation at a concentration of 0.1 g/pot was more significant than the other concentrations in reducing number of galls and egg masses, reaching the average of 12 and 7 with a reduction percentage of 69.7 and 71.2%, correspondingly.