Abstract
Brown leaf spot disease caused by Nigrospora guilinensis on Phellodendron chinense occurs in a large area in Dayi County, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, China each year. This outbreak has severely reduced the production of Chinese medicinal plants P. chinense and caused substantial economic losses. The bacterial isolate JKB05 was isolated from the healthy leaves of P. chinense, exhibited antagonistic effects against N. guilinensis and was identified as Bacillus megaterium. The following fermentation medium and conditions improved the inhibitory effect of B. megaterium JKB05 on N. guilinensis: 2% glucose, 0.1% soybean powder, 0.1% KCl, and 0.05% MgSO4; initial concentration 6 × 106 cfu/ml, and a 42-h optimal fermentation time. A composite of 0.1% nano-SiO2 JKB05 improved the thermal stability, acid-base stability and ultraviolet resistance by 16%, 12%, and 38.9%, respectively, and nano-SiO2 was added to the fermentation process. The best formula for the wettable powder was 35% kaolin, 4% polyethylene glycol, 8% Tween, and 2% humic acid. The following quality test results for the wettable powder were obtained: wetting time 87.0 s, suspension rate 80.33%, frequency of microbial contamination 0.08%, pH 7.2, fineness 95.8%, drying loss 1.47%, and storage stability ≥83.5%. A pot experiment revealed that the ability of JKB05 to prevent fungal infections on P. chinense increased considerably and achieved levels of control as high as 94%. The use of nanomaterials significantly improved the ability of biocontrol bacteria to control this disease.