Actinobacteria: isolation, identification, characterisation and preliminary experiments for their possible use against Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis.

In recent years, new actinobacteria species have been isolated as
endophytes from plants and are sought after for the role of bio-control
inoculants for sustainable agriculture. In particular, our studies
focus on the isolation of some endophytic actinobacteria from tomato
healthy plants, with a potential antagonistic activity against the
causal agent of bacterial canker of tomato: Clavibacter michiganensis
subsp. michiganensis (Cmm). Cmm is a plant-pathogenic bacterium
belonging to the order of Actinomycetales. It infects tomato plants,
spreads through the xylem and causes bacterial wilt and canker
which can be considered to be the most important bacterial disease
of tomato causing substantial economic losses worldwide.
A total of 50 endophytic actinobacteria strains were isolated
from tomato healthy plants collected from Adelaide Province.