Fig. 1

Low calcium condition promotes mycophagous activity of NGJ1. a Mycophagous activity of NGJ1 on R. solani on PDA plates with or without EGTA/CaCl₂ supplementation. On EGTA supplemented plates, NGJ1 grew over the mycelial mass in less than 4 days while on PDA plates (without supplementation), the bacterium took 7–9 days to cover the fungal biomass. Supplementation of CaCl₂ completely inhibited mycophagous ability and prevented bacterial growth over fungal biomass. b The abundance of NGJ1 on R. solani mycelia on confrontation plates supplemented with or without EGTA/CaCl₂. The bacterial abundance was significantly more on EGTA containing PDA plates than that on PDA only or CaCl₂ supplemented plates. c The NGJ1 growth pattern in PDB with or without EGTA/CaCl₂ supplementation. The growth was similar under tested conditions. Similar results were obtained in at least three independent biological experiments and only representative photographs are shown. Asterisk * indicates significant difference at P < 0.05 (estimated using one-way ANOVA). Graphs show mean values ± standard deviation