Effectiveness of <i>Flammulina velutipes</i> in Inhibiting <i>Ralstonia solanacearum</i> Caused Tomato Wilt Disease

Abstract The current study aimed to isolate and diagnose the bacteria causing tomato wilt disease and combat it using safe and environmentally friendly methods due to the importance of accurate identification in successful control programs. The results of molecular identification By analyzing the nucleotide sequence of the 16S rRNA gene. showed that the bacteria causing the wilt is Ralstonia solanacearum , which was registered as R. solanacearum strain R-2/Tikrit on the NCBI website under the accession number PQ637149.1. In testing the pathogenicity of this bacteria on 10 tomato hybrids, the results showed varying infections for these hybrids. The tomato hybrids Maysara, Zidane and Randa showed high sensitivity to infection with R. solanacearum , while the hybrids; Barcelona, Julie and Rowan were highly resistant to infection with this bacteria. The Ethanol extract of the fruit bodies of the basidiomycetes Flammulina velutipes showed the highest activity in inhibiting the growth of R. solanacearum compared to the aqueous extract, as confirmed by the superiority of the Ethanol extract in containing the highest concentrations of glycosides, tannins, saponins, total phenols and total alkaloids. The bactericide Cure 100 and sodium bicarbonate recorded the highest inhibition of 3.3 and 2.6 cm at concentrations of 1 and 10%, respectively. According to these results, it is possible to exploit extracts of the edible mushroom F. velutipes alone or with low concentrations of sodium bicarbonate and the bactericide Cure 100 as one of the integrated control methods for tomato wilt bacteria.