Bacillus Consortium Promotes the Growth of Pea Plants and Protects Against Fusarium Wilt Disease

Fusarium wilt disease is a significant challenge to the tomato crop, causing economic losses worldwide. The unwise use of chemical fungicides has raised concerns about food safety. Hence, biocontrol is a sustainable strategy for controlling Fusarium wilt disease. This study aimed to promote growth and manage Fusarium wilt disease in pea plants using two Bacillus strains (Bacillus aryabhattai strain Z-48 and Bacillus cereus strain Z-53) either alone or in a synthetic consortium. The application of the consortium of both Bacillus strains provided maximum protection against Fusarium wilt disease, showing the biocontrol effect of 54.3%. Under Fusarium disease stress, the consortium application increased shoot length, root length and dry biomass up to 88.6%, 31.1%, and 86.7% respectively, compared with the pathogen alone treatment. Likewise, the application of the Bacillus consortium significantly increased the time-course accumulation of defence-related enzymes, and photosynthetic pigments in Pea plants. Non-targeted metabolite profiling indicated extensive remodulations in the production of a wide array of metabolites upon application of the consortium (Z-48 + Z-53). The multivariate analysis showed strong relationships between treatments and different metabolites, including phenylalanine, ursolic acid, and glycerol-3-phosphocholine. The study demonstrates that this Bacillus consortium can be effectively used to develop a biocontrol-based formulation for farming applications.