Abstract Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is a recurring problem in eggplant and often leaves growers with few reliable options. Trichoderma ‐based products and rhizobacterial inoculants are used in practice, but their performance varies, so both were examined here under the same screening conditions. In greenhouse tests and in vitro assays, Trichoderma viride showed much stronger suppression of wilt than the Rhizobium strain, and this result held across application methods. Because T. viride consistently performed better, its metabolites were analysed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The extract contained several phenolic compounds, benzophenone, a benzoxazinone‐type molecule, and related secondary metabolites. These were then docked against a panel of R. solanacearum virulence proteins to see which ones might be relevant to the observed activity. A few metabolites stood out. These included 4‐(4‐methylbenzoylmethyl)‐2H‐1,4‐benzoxazin‐3(4H)‐one, 5‐hydroxy‐7‐methoxy‐2‐methyl‐3‐phenyl‐4‐chromenone, benzophenone and N‐(methylsulfonyl)tryptophan. All four gave the strongest predicted interactions, particularly with ChbA, RasR, MetE and WecC. The results point to T. viride as the more effective biocontrol agent for eggplant wilt, while the docking results highlight specific metabolites that could be involved and deserve further biochemical testing.
Das et al. (Thu,) studied this question.