pathogens Article The carB Gene of Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) is Associated with Nematicidal Activity against the Root-Knot Nematode Meloidogyne javanica Yanfei Xia 1,2,3,*, Shen Li 3, Guohui Xu 1, Shanshan Xie 2 , Xueting Liu 3, Xiaomin Lin 3, Huijun Wu 2,* and Xuewen Gao 2 1 Department of Forensic Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, 15 Lequn Road, Guilin 541001, Guangxi, China;
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[email protected] (X.G.) 3 Department of Plant Protection, College of Horticulture and Plant Protection, Henan University of Science and Technology, 263 Kaiyuan Avenue, Luoyang 471023, Henan, China;
[email protected] (S.L.);
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[email protected] (H.W.); Tel.: +86-773-2816-299 (Y.X.); +86-25-8439-5268 (H.W.) Abstract: Biological nematicides have been widely used to lower the losses generated by phytopara- sitic nematodes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the nematicidal effects of Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) against Meloidogyne javanica and to identify nematicide-related genes. Culture filtrates of BL21(DE3) caused juvenile mortality and inhibited egg hatching in a dose-dependent manner. In the greenhouse, treatment of tomato seedlings with BL21(DE3) culture filtrates at 50 and 100% concentrations not only reduced the amount of M. javanica egg masses and galls, but improved plant Citation: Xia, Y.; Li, S.; Xu, G.; Xie, S.; root and shoot fresh weight.