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.