Antimicrobial nano-zinc oxide-2S albumin protein formulation significantly inhibits growth of "Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus" in planta

PLoS One. 2018 Oct 10;13(10):e0204702. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204702. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Huanglongbing (HLB, also known as citrus greening) is considered to be the most devastating disease that has significantly damaged the citrus industry globally. HLB is caused by the Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), the fastidious phloem-restricted gram-negative bacterium, vectored by the asian citrus psyllid. To date, there is no effective control available against CLas. To alleviate the effects of HLB on the industry and protect citrus farmers, there is an urgent need to identify or develop inhibitor molecules to suppress or eradicate CLas from infected citrus plant. In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time an in planta efficacy of two antimicrobial compounds against CLas viz. 2S albumin (a plant based protein; ~12.5 kDa), Nano-Zinc Oxide (Nano-ZnO; ~ 4.0 nm diameter) and their combinations. Aqueous formulations of these compounds were trunk-injected to HLB affected Mosambi plants (Citrus sinensis) grafted on 3-year old rough lemon (C. jambhiri) rootstock with known CLas titer maintained inside an insect-free screen house. The effective concentration of 2S albumin (330 ppm) coupled with the Nano-ZnO (330 ppm) at 1:1 ratio was used. The dynamics of CLas pathogen load of treated Mosambi plants was assessed using TaqMan-qPCR assay every 30 days after treatment (DAT) and monitored till 120 days. We observed that 2S albumin-Nano-ZnO formulation performed the best among all the treatments decreasing CLas population by 96.2%, 97.6%, 95.6%, and 97% of the initial bacterial load (per 12.5 ng of genomic DNA) at 30, 60, 90, and 120 DAT, respectively. Our studies demonstrated the potency of 2S albumin-Nano-ZnO formulation as an antimicrobial treatment for suppressing CLas in planta and could potentially be developed as a novel anti CLas therapeutics to mitigate the HLB severity affecting the citrus industry worldwide.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • 2S Albumins, Plant / administration & dosage*
  • Animals
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / administration & dosage*
  • Bacterial Load / drug effects
  • Bacterial Load / genetics
  • Citrus / microbiology*
  • DNA, Bacterial / analysis
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • Hemiptera / microbiology
  • Insect Vectors / microbiology
  • Nanostructures / administration & dosage
  • Plant Diseases / microbiology*
  • Plant Diseases / prevention & control*
  • Powders
  • Rhizobiaceae / drug effects*
  • Rhizobiaceae / genetics
  • Rhizobiaceae / growth & development
  • Zinc Oxide / administration & dosage*

Substances

  • 2S Albumins, Plant
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • Powders
  • Zinc Oxide

Grants and funding

This work is partly supported by the CDRE Grant no. 2015-70016-23010 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USA; and DBT, Government of India Grant no. BT/PR9877/BRB/10/1274/2014.