Patil, H.J., National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Mau, UP 275101, India
Srivastava, A.K., National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Mau, UP 275101, India
Kumar, S., National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Mau, UP 275101, India
Chaudhari, B.L., Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon, 425 001, India
Arora, D.K., National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Mau, UP 275101, India

The baiting bag method was found to be useful for isolating antagonistic actinomycetes from terrestrial habitat. Out of total 110 actinomycetes isolated from rhizospheric and non-rhizospheric soil of Indo Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India, 9 isolates exhibited aggressive antagonism against Rhizoctonia solani, screened through dual culture, well diffusion and sealed plate technique. Maximum growth inhibition was recorded up to 50% under well diffusion (S. toxytricini vh22) and 52.6% in a direct confrontation (Actinomycetales bacterium vh41). Whereas maximum disease suppression (53.33%) under green house condition was achieved on seedling treated with S. tricolor vh85. Scanning electron microscopy of antagonists and pathogen interaction exhibited pore formation and hyphal degradation of test pathogen. Physiological and molecular characterization of selected isolates showed wide diversity and uncommon species has been encountered through the selective isolation technique. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.