Enhanced anti-herbivore defense of tomato plants against Spodoptera litura by their rhizosphere bacteria

BACKGROUND: The use of beneficial microorganisms as an alternative for pest control has gained increasing attention. The objective of this study was to screen beneficial rhizosphere bacteria with the ability to enhance tomato anti-herbivore resistance. RESULTS: Rhizosphere bacteria in tomato field from Fuqing, one of the four locations where rhizosphere bacteria were collected in Fujian, China, enhanced tomato resistance against the tobacco cutworm Spodoptera litura, an important polyphagous pest. Inoculation with the isolate T6–4 obtained from the rhizosphere of tomato field in Fuqing reduced leaf damage and weight gain of S. litura larvae fed on the leaves of inoculated tomato plants by 27% in relative to control. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequence identities indicated that the isolate T6–4 was closely related to Stenotrophomonas rhizophila supported with 99.37% sequence similarity. In the presence of S. litura infestation, inoculation with the bacterium led to increases by a 66.9% increase in protease inhibitor activity, 53% in peroxidase activity and 80% in polyphenol oxidase activity in the leaves of inoculated plants as compared to the un-inoculated control. Moreover, the expression levels of defense-related genes encoding allene oxide cyclase (AOC), allene oxide synthase (AOS), lipoxygenase D (LOXD) and proteinase inhibitor (PI-II) in tomato leaves were induced 2.2-, 1.7-, 1.4- and 2.7-fold, respectively by T6–4 inoculation. CONCLUSION: These results showed that the tomato rhizosphere soils harbor beneficial bacteria that can systemically induce jasmonate-dependent anti-herbivore resistance in tomato plants. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12870-022-03644-3.