Bacteria have the ability to produce a wide variety of metabolites with antifungal capabilities. The present study was assessed in order to find out the antagonistic ability of eight different soil borne bacterial strains, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella ozaenae, Pseudomonas maltophila, Bacillus circulans, Bacillus sphaericus, Bacillus coagulans, Serratia marcescens and Streptococcus spp.against some plant pathogenic fungi , Alternaria porri, Fusarium oxysporum, Sclerotium rolfsii and Botryodiplodia theobromae which were isolated from disease specimen. All isolates were subjected to primary screening against test organisms and further carried out to secondary screening using agar disc assay and slide culture techniques. Most of the selected bacteria exhibited promising antagonistic activity against tested organisms. Out of eight bacterial species P.maltophila and B.circulans revealed effective biocontrol potential against all tested fungi. Whereas Streptococcus spp induced the vegetative growth of S.rolfsii and F.oxysporum. In slide culture techniques, P.maltophila completely inhibited the spore’s germination of B.theobromae and S.rolfsii while the S.marcescens and B.circulans produced 0% of spore germination on S.rolfsii. Hence, K.ozaenae and Streptococcus spp showed least effective on F.oxysporum and B.theobromae and S.rolfsii respectively. The experimental results demonstrated the fungicidal effect of bacterial species and revealed the possibility of these bacterial species to be used as bio control agents against these fungal species.
