## 4 Discussion  
The phytopathogen _Pectobacterium_ spp. is one of the most widely studied bacterial genera because it produces a significantly destructive disease in a wide diversity of plants around the world, causing significant business losses [7]. _P. aroidearum_ was proposed as a novel bacterial species in 2013 and was described as a pathogen principally causing soft rot diseases in monocotyledonus plants [41; 42]. Therefore, in this work, we report on the pathogen _P. aroidearum_ SM2 isolated from the fruits of _C. annuum_ var. Serrano with soft rot symptoms. Our genome sequencing analysis of _P. aroidearum_ SM2 revealed important virulence genes that could be important during the maceration of the tissues of the fruits tested (_C. annuum_ L., _Solanum lycopersicum_, _Physalis philadelphia_, and tubers of _Solanum tuberosum_ (Figure 1)), such as pectinases, five types of secretion systems (type I, II, III, IV, and VI), and genes related to invasion motility (Table 3). In addition, according to the six antibiotic resistance mechanisms, the only phenotype showing resistance to erythromycinycin could potentially be accounted for via its genes related to efflux pump antibiotic resistance mechanisms. Previous research works showed that major pathogenicity determinants causing soft rot symptoms in the tissues of diverse economic crop plants include a battery of genes encoding extracellular pectinases, such as pectin lyase, pectin methylesterase, and pectin polygalacturonase, as well as proteinases, cellulases, toxins, and secretion systems, which are widely distributed and conserved in the genomes found in one of the top ten most common bacterial plant pathogens, _Pectobacterium_ spp. [41; 43; 44]. Although diverse biocontrol strategies have been developed and employed to prevent the growth of _Pectobacterium_ spp. and the plant diseases caused by it [1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23], additional investigations will be necessary into beneficial microorganisms that might compete successfully with this phytopathogen in an ecologically friendly manner, and thus help to reduce the environmental impacts on agriculture systems caused by the use of chemical bactericides [13; 14; 15]. In this regard, with reference to the hypotheses established in this work, the findings reported here demonstrate for the first time that _K. cowanii_ Cp1, previously isolated from the seeds of _Capsicum pubscens_, can compete in a similar ecological niche against _P. aroidearum_ SM2, leading to a reduction in soft rot symptoms in serrano chili (_Capsicum annuum_ L.) and other vegetables, such as _Solanum lycopersicum_. Our results prove that if _K. cowanii_ Cp1 colonizes the fruit tissue first, there is a high probability that it will reduce soft rot symptoms through the synthesis of a mix of VOCs, where alcohols, ketones, esters, pyrazines, and hydrocarbons can be important. Of the VOCs identified during the lag growth phase of _K. cowanii_ Cp1, we have determined that 2,5-dimethyl-pyrazine is a chemical compound with bactericidal effects on _P. aroidearum_ SM2 when applied at high volume concentrations, causing the complete elimination of soft rot symptoms. Interestingly, when 2,5-dimethyl-pyrazine was mixed with acetoin (3-hydroxy-2-butanone), identified during log and stationary growth phases, both VOCs showed synergy with _K. cowanii_ Cp1 at lower volume concentrations, causing the complete elimination of soft rot symptoms compared with both VOCs tested separately at lower concentrations. These significant results require further investigation in order to obtain more information about the mechanisms of competitive colonization and interaction in the additional VOCs detected, and to evaluate potential chemical formulations that can act in synergy with _K. cowanii_ Cp1 to more effectively control the phytopathogen _Pectobacterium_ spp., as well as to possibly explore other microorganism pathogens.