{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T05:57:04Z","timestamp":1790575024104,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790553600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Plant Sci."],"abstract":"\n Tomato gray mold caused by\n Botrytis cinerea<\/jats:italic>\n is a devastating disease in protected cultivation, and biological control using beneficial microorganisms offers a sustainable alternative to chemical fungicides. However, the synergistic effects and underlying mechanisms of combining\n Irpex lacteus<\/jats:italic>\n with\n Bacillus velezensis<\/jats:italic>\n against tomato gray mold remain unexplored. In this study, we investigated the individual and combined effects of\n I. lacteus<\/jats:italic>\n and\n B. velezensis<\/jats:italic>\n on tomato resistance against\n B. cinerea<\/jats:italic>\n . Both\n I. lacteus<\/jats:italic>\n and\n B. velezensis<\/jats:italic>\n effectively suppressed\n B. cinerea<\/jats:italic>\n growth in dual culture assays.Individual applications of\n I. lacteus<\/jats:italic>\n fermentation broth and\n B. velezensis<\/jats:italic>\n cell-free culture filtrate on tomato plants achieved control efficacies of 55.93% and 62.75%, respectively, whereas their combination significantly increased control efficacy to 86.95%. The combined treatment markedly reduced disease severity and pathogen-induced cell death, accompanied by significantly decreased accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H\n 2<\/jats:sub>\n O\n 2<\/jats:sub>\n ), and superoxide anion (O\n 2<\/jats:sub>\n \u00b7<\/jats:sup>\n -<\/jats:sub>\n ) compared with pathogen-only controls. Furthermore, the combined treatment substantially elevated the activities of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD, CAT, APX), phenylpropanoid pathway enzymes (PAL, PPO, CAD, CA-POD, CGA-POD), and increased the contents of total phenolics, total flavonoids, chlorogenic acid, and DPPH radical scavenging capacity. In addition, the combined treatment restored photosynthetic performance, as evidenced by increased maximum quantum efficiency of PSII (Fv\/Fm), enhanced activities of Calvin-cycle enzymes (Rubisco and FBPase), and upregulation of photosynthesis-related genes (\n FBPA<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n TPI<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n FBPase<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n SBPase<\/jats:italic>\n ). These biochemical changes were generally more pronounced in the combined treatment than in single microorganism treatments. Collectively, our results demonstrate that\n I. lacteus<\/jats:italic>\n and\n B. velezensis<\/jats:italic>\n synergistically protect tomato against\n B. cinerea<\/jats:italic>\n by mitigating oxidative stress and activating both antioxidant and phenylpropanoid defense pathways. These findings highlight the potential of combined\n I. lacteus<\/jats:italic>\n and\n B. velezensis<\/jats:italic>\n application as a sustainable biocontrol strategy against tomato gray mold.\n <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpls.2026.1951753","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T05:43:49Z","timestamp":1790574229000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Irpex lacteus and Bacillus velezensis synergistically suppress tomato gray mold by enhancing antioxidant defense and phenylpropanoid metabolism"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Kejia","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Horticulture and Plant Protection, Henan University of Science and Technology","place":["Luoyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ning","family":"Guo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Golam Jalal","family":"Ahammed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Horticulture and Plant Protection, Henan University of Science and Technology","place":["Luoyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Airong","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Horticulture and Plant Protection, Henan University of Science and Technology","place":["Luoyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shuangchen","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Horticulture and Plant Protection, Henan University of Science and Technology","place":["Luoyang, China"]},{"name":"Henan International Joint Laboratory of Stress Resistance Regulation and Safe Production of Protected Vegetables","place":["Luoyang, China"]},{"name":"Henan Engineering Technology Research Center for Horticultural Crop safety and Disease Control","place":["Luoyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pmpp.2024.102427","article-title":"Biocontrol efficacy of Botrytis cinerea on postharvest tomato fruit by the endophytic bacterium Bacillus velezensis BE1","volume":"134","author":"Aboelez","year":"2024","journal-title":"Physiol. 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