FIGURE 1.

Overview of workflow for investigating the microbial community in whitefly-infested pepper plants. (1) Whitefly treatment: two-weeks-old pepper seedlings were treated with an average of 18 whitefly adults for 2 weeks in a plastic cylinder. (2) Sample collection: the root system was collected at 0, 1, and 2 week after whitefly infestation. The bacteria were then separated by shaking in SDW for 30 min. (3) Analysis: to investigate bacterial diversity, PCR-based 454 pyrosequencing (culture independent techniques) was employed after extraction of 16S rRNA from rhizosphere bacteria. To assess the insecticidal capacity of randomly selected pseudomonads, a killing assay with a model insect Galleria mellonella was conducted with 2 μL of bacterial suspension (OD₆₀₀ = 1.0). G. mellonella mortality was measured at 24 h after inoculation at 30°C.