Abstract

Mahmoud Al-Khatib*, Khalaf Alhussaen, Nasser El-Banna and Morouj Zyadeh

We report the antifungal activity of eight different bacterial isolates (Bacillus megaterium NB-3, Bacillus cereus NB-4, B. cereus NB -5, Bacillus subtilis NB-6, Corynebacterium xerosis NB- 2, Burkholderia mallei NB-8, B. subtilis (HNEB-1) and B. cereus NEB II voru) against the olive leaf spot fungus (Cycloconium oleaginum). B. subtilis NB-6 (6.88 cm2), B. megaterium NB-3 (7.13 cm2), B. subtilis HNEB1 (7.63 cm2) and B. cereus NB-4(7.88 cm 2) were found to control significantly the growth of C. oleaginum, where the strains of C. xerosis NB-2 (12.75 cm2), B. mallei NB-8 (15.63 cm2) and B. cereus NB-5 (16.25 cm2) controlled the fungal growth under the experimental conditions. B. cereus NEBII voru is the only tested bacterial strain that enhanced the fungal growth of C. oleaginum under our experimental conditions (46.25 cm2).