ABSTRACT: Tomato bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum (RS) is one of the most devastating soil-borne diseases, and compost is to be considered as a resource-saving and environment-friendly measure to control the disease. Herein, a pot experiment was implemented to explore the effects of vinegar residue matrix amendments on the growth performances of tomato seedlings and to examine the suppression ability against bacterial wilt under vinegar residue substrate (VRS), and peat substrate (Peat) with RS inoculation. The results revealed that VRS effectively suppressed the disease incidence of bacterial wilt, increased the number of bacteria and actinomycetes, decreased fungi populations, promoted soil microbial populations and microbial activities, enhanced the growths of tomato seedlings, and modulated defense mechanism. In addition, VRS efficiently inhibited the oxidative damage in RS inoculated leaves via the regulation of excess reactive oxide species (O2•- and H2O2) production, lessening of malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and causing less membrane injury; resulting in enhancements of antioxidants enzymes activities accompanying with modulating their encoding gene expression. The transcription levels of NPR1, PIN2, PR1b, ACO1, EDS1, PR1B, MAPK3, PIN2, and RRS1 were also modulated with the pathogens inoculated in tomato leaves both in VRS and Peat treatments, which indicated that systemic-acquired resistance possesses cross-talk between salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and the ethylene-dependent signaling pathway. Besides, the RS inoculation significantly inhibited the growth of tomato seedlings, and all growth indices of plants grown in VRS were considerably higher than those produced in Peat. Taken together, VRS represents a new strategy to control tomato bacterial wilt through boosting the soil microbial populations and microbial activities. Furthermore, VRS promotes the plant immune response to provide a better growth environment for plants surviving in disease conditions.
