• Title/Summary/Keyword: Biological control agents

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The Future of Chemical Pest Control

  • Pickett, John-A.;Woodcock, Christine-M.
    • Korean journal of applied entomology
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    • v.31 no.3
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    • pp.304-313
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    • 1992
  • The agricultural industry is beset by continuing demands to decrease the use of pest control agents which employ toxic modes of action. Although there are real problems of pesticide resistance, and sometimes overuse or redistribution in the environment, much criticism results from a lack of appreciation of how small is the risk involved. Whatever the background reasons, research and development for pesticide alternatives, particularly within Integrated Pest Management systems, is clearly of high priority. Currently available approaches, including use of natural products and molecular biology, are often regarded with naive optimism and require critical appraisal. For the future, methods of pest control based on chemicals with non-toxic modes of action (e.g. pheromones) continue to offer promise but, for widespread use, will require their integration with biological agents and development by means of plant molecular biology.

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Development of Antagonistic Microorganism for Biological Control of Dollar Spot of Turfgrass (잔디 동전마름병의 생물학적 방제를 위한 길항 미생물의 선발과 효력 검정)

  • Shim, Taek-Su;Jung, Woo-Cheol;Do, Ki-Seok;Shim, Gyu-Yul;Lee, Jae-Ho;Choi, Kee-Hyun
    • Asian Journal of Turfgrass Science
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.191-201
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    • 2006
  • Dollar spot caused by Sclerotinia homeocarpa is one of major diseases in putting greens. Microorganisms antagonistic to S. homeocarpa, a pathogen of dollar spot, were primarily screened through in vitro tests, including dual culture method and triple layer agar diffusion method. In vivo tests were also conducted to select the best candidate for a biocontrol microorganism, using pot experiment. Bacillus subtilis EW42-1 and Trichoderma harziaum GBF-0208 were finally selected as biocontrol agents against dollar spot. Relative Performance Index(RPI) was used as a criterion of selecting potential biocontrol agents. B. subtilis EW42-1 and T. harzianum GBF-0208 showed resistance to several agrochemicals mainly used in a golf course. B. subtilis EW42-1 and T. harzianum GBF-0208 suppressed effectively the disease progress of dollar spot like synthetic fungicide tebuconazole in the nursery where dollar spot had seriously occurred. B. subtilis EW42-1 and T. harzianum GBF-0208 have a potential to be biocontrol agents for the control of dollar spot.

Determination of Carbon Source Utilization of Bacillus and Pythium Species by Biolog$^{(R)}$ Microplate Assay

  • Chun, Se-Chul;R.W. Schneider;Chung, Ill-Min
    • Journal of Microbiology
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    • v.41 no.3
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    • pp.252-258
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    • 2003
  • The carbon utilizations of Bacillus species and Pythium species were investigated by using a Biolog$^{(R)}$ microplate assay to determine if there are differences in the carbon utilizations of selected strains of these species. It may be possible to afford a competitive advantage to bacterial biological control agents by providing them with a substrate that they can readily use as a carbon source, for example, in a seed coating formulation. Microplates, identified as SFP, SFN and YT were used to identify spore-forming bacteria, nonspore-forming bacteria, and yeast, respectively. Bacterial and mycelial suspensions were adjusted to turbidities of 0.10 to 0.11 at 600 nm. One hundred microliters of each of the bacterial and mycelial suspension were inoculated into each well of each of the three types of microplates. L-arabinose, D-galactose, D-melezitose and D-melibiose of the 147 carbohydrates tested were found to be utilized only by bacteria, and not by Pythium species, by Biolog$^{(R)}$ microplate assay, and this was confirmed by traditional shake flask culture. Thus, it indicated that the Biolog$^{(R)}$ microplate assay could be readily used to search for specific carbon sources that could be utilized to increase the abilities of bacterial biological control agents to adapt to contrived environments.

Biosurfactant as a microbial pesticide

  • Lee, Baek-Seok;Choi, Sung-Won;Choi, Ki-Hyun;Lee, Jae-Ho;Kim, Eun-Ki
    • 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2003.04a
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    • pp.40-44
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    • 2003
  • Soil-borne infectious disease including Pythium aphanidermatum and Rhizoctonia solani causes severe damage to plants, such as cucumber. This soil-borne infectious disease was not controlled effectively by chemical pesticide. Since these diseases spread through the soil, chemical agents are usually ineffective. Instead, biological control, including antagonistic microbe can be used as a preferred control method. An efficient method was developed to select an antagonistic strain to be used as a biological control agent strain. In this new method, surface tension reduction potential of an isolate was included in the ‘decision factor’ in addition to the other factors, such as growth rate, and pathogen inhibition rate. Considering these 3 decision factors by a statistical method, an isolate from soil was selected and was identified as Bacillus sp. GB16. In the pot test, this strain showed the best performance among the isolated strains. The lowest disease incidence rate and fastest seed growth was observed when Bacillus sp. GB16 was used. Therefore this strain was considered as plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). The action of surface tension reducing component was deduced as the enhancement of wetting, spreading, and residing of antagonistic strain in the rhizosphere. This result showed that new selection method was significantly effective in selecting the best antagonistic strain for biological control of soil-borne infectious plant pathogen. The antifungal substances against P. aphanidermatum and R. solani were partially purified from the culture filtrates of Bacillus sp. GB16. In this study, lipopeptide possessing antifungal activity was isolated from Bacillus sp. GB16 cultures by various purification procedures and was identified as a surfactin-like lipopeptide based on the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), high performance liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy (HPLC-MS), and quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) ESI-MS/MS data. The lipopeptide, named GB16-BS, completely inhibited the growth of Pythium aphanidermatum, Rhizoctonia solani, Penicillium sp., and Botrytis cineria at concentrations of 10 and 50 mg/L, respectively. A novel method to prevent the foaming and to provide oxygen was developed. During the production of surface active agent, such as lipopeptide (surfactin), large amount of foam was produced by aeration. This resulted in the carryover of cells to the outside of the fermentor, which leads to the significant loss of cells. Instead of using cell-toxic antifoaming agents, low amount of hydrogen peroxide was added. Catalase produced by cells converted hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water. Also addition of corn oil as an oxygen vector as well as antifoaming agent was attempted. In addition, Ca-stearate, a metal soap, was added to enhance the antifoam activity of com oil. These methods could prevent the foaming significantly and maintained high dissolved oxygen in spite of lower aeration and agitation. Using these methods, high cell density, could be achieved with increased lipopeptide productivity. In conclusion to produce an effective biological control agent for soil-borne infectious disease, following strategies were attempted i) effective screening of antagonist by including surface tension as an important decision factor ii) identification of antifungal compound produced from the isolated strain iii) novel oxygenation by $H_2O_2-catalase$ with vegetable oil for antifungal lipopeptide production.

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Effects of Biological Control Agent Algicidal Bacterium on the Phytoplankton Community and Microcystin-LR Contents in a Mesocosm Experiment (살조세균 적용이 식물플랑크톤 군집과 조류독소 분포에 미치는 영향)

  • Jung, Seung-Won;Seo, Jong-Kun;Suh, Mi-Yeon;Han, Myung-Soo;Kim, Baik-Ho
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.38 no.2 s.112
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    • pp.261-270
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    • 2005
  • Biological control agents (BCA; algicidal bacterium Xantobacter autotrophycus) plus casitone media, strongly changed physicochemical variables, standing crops of phytoplankton and microcystin-LR phytoplankton in 100-L mesocosm constructed in a small hexagonal pond (3.5 m ${\times}$ 5 m). No M. aeruginosa showed by 8 days, and 60% of total standing crops of phytoplanktons were decreased by the BCA treatment. BCA treatment also induced a strong decline of cellular extracted microcystin-LR (MCLR) and a remarkable increase of dissolved MCLR with the decrement in standing crops of cyanobacteria. In addition, BCA strongly increased all nutrients, but new outbreak of phytoplanktons hardly showed in the experimental mesocosm. The field application of BCA to controling the cyanobacterial bloom in large lakes and reservoirs is not relevant due to high concentration of nutrients and toxins. Thus, a further study is needed to diminish the adverse effects after BCA treatment for water quality preservation.

Isolation and Identification of Antagonistic Microorganisms for Biological Control to Apple Tree Diseases, Canker(Valsa ceratosperma) (사과 부란변 방제를 위한 길항미생물 분리 및 동정)

  • 박흥섭;조정일
    • Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.35-43
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    • 1997
  • For the purpose of acquiring microbial agents that can be utilized to billogically control the major airborne disease to apple trees, such as canker(Valsa ceratosperma), the effective microorgaisms were isolated, tested for antagonistic activity to the pathogen causing major disease to apple trees and identifed. Screening of more than 3, 000 species of microorganisms collected in nature for them antagonistic action to the pathogen, Valsa ceratosperma causing disease to apple tree resulted in selection of effective species. Out of the 11 species, one species designated as CAP141 demonstrated outstanding activity. The bacterial strain, CAP141 exerted antagonistic efficiency of 65% on Valsa ceratosperma. The CAP141 was identified as a bacterial strain to Bacillus subtilis based on morphology, culture conditions, and physio-biochemical characteristics.

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Antifungal Properties of Streptomyces bacillaris S8 for Biological Control Applications

  • Da-Ran Kim;Chang-Wook Jeon;Youn-Sig Kwak
    • The Plant Pathology Journal
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    • v.40 no.3
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    • pp.322-328
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    • 2024
  • Soybean (Glycine max), a crucial global crop, experiences yearly yield reduction due to diseases such as anthracnose (Colletotrichum truncatum) and root rot (Fusarium spp.). The use of fungicides, which have traditionally been employed to control these phytopathogens, is now facing challenges due to the emergence of fungicide-resistant strains. Streptomyces bacillaris S8 strain S8 is previously known to produce valinomycin t through a nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) pathway. The objective of this study was to evaluate the antifungal activity of S. bacillaris S8 against C. truncatum and Fusarium sp., assessing its efficacy against soybean pathogens. The results indicate that strain S8 effectively controlled both above-ground and underground soybean diseases, using the NRPS and NRPS-related compound, suggesting its potential as a biological control in plant-microbe interactions. These findings underscore the pivotal role of the stain S8 in fostering healthy soybean microbial communities and emphasize the significance of microbiota structure studies in unveiling potent biocontrol agents.

Potential in the Application for Biological Control of Winter Diatom Bloom Caused by Stephanodiscus hantzschii (겨울철 녹조발생 원인종 Stephanodiscus hantzschii의 생물학적제어를 위한 미소생물제재의 적용실험)

  • Kim, Baik-Ho;Kang, Yoon-Ho;Han, Myung-Soo
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.37 no.2 s.107
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    • pp.236-240
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    • 2004
  • To examine the algicidal effect of co-treatment of biological control agent on centric diatom Stephanodiscus hantzschii in the filtered water, an endemic algicidal bacterium (Pseudomonas putida) and a heterotrich ciliate (Stentor roselli) were iso-lated from Pal'tang reservoir, Korea. Bacterial isolate and ciliate removed 98% and 80% of the diatom for 7 days of cultivation. Co-treatments of these two agents perfectly inhibited the diatom growth, compared to the single treatment of each agent. This synergistic interaction of the bacterium and ciliate could provide an effective tool in the biomanipulation to control the diatom bloom in freshwater lakes and streams.

Bacteriophage Cocktail Comprising Fifi044 and Fifi318 for Biocontrol of Erwinia amylovora

  • Byeori Kim;Seung Yeup Lee;Jungkum Park;Sujin Song;Kwang-Pyo Kim;Eunjung Roh
    • The Plant Pathology Journal
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    • v.40 no.2
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    • pp.160-170
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    • 2024
  • Erwinia amylovora is a plant pathogen that causes fire blight on apples and pears. Bacteriophages, which are viruses that selectively infect specific species of bacteria and are harmless to animal cells, have been considered as biological control agents for the prevention of bacterial pathogens. In this study, we aimed to use bacteriophages that infect E. amylovora as biocontrol agents against fire blight. We isolated bacteriophages Fifi044 and Fifi318 infecting E. amylovora, and characterized their morphology, plaque form, and genetic diversity to use as cocktails for disease control. The stabilities of the two phages were investigated at various temperatures and pH values and under sunlight, and long-term storage experiment was conducted for a year. To evaluate whether the two phages were suitable for use in cocktail form, growth curves of E. amylovora were prepared after treating the bacterial cells with single phages and a phage cocktail. In addition, a disease control test was conducted using immature apples and in vitro cultured apple plantlets to determine the biocontrol effects of the phage cocktail. The two phages were morphologically and genetically different, and highly stable up to 50℃ and pH value from 4 to 10. The phages showed synergistic effect when used as a cocktail in the inhibition of host bacterial growth and the disease control. This study demonstrated that the potential of the phage cocktail as a biocontrol agent for commercial use.

Aphelenchus avenae and Antagonistic Fungi as Biological Control Agents of Pythium spp.

  • Jun, Ok-Kyoung;Kim, Young-Ho
    • The Plant Pathology Journal
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    • v.20 no.4
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    • pp.271-276
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    • 2004
  • To examine the control effect of damping-off on radish caused by Pythium spp., researchers used the isolates of a fungivorous nematode, Aphelenchus avenae, and antagonistic fungi, Trichoderma spp. These were used as biocontrol agents, either alone, or in combination. Growth rates of the A. avenae isolates and fungal damages by the nematodes varied depending on Trichoderma spp., which contained lower T. koningii and T. virens cultures than other Trichoderma cultures. Phythium spp. were damaged by all five Aphelenchus isolates, but the multiplication rate of nematode isolate Aa-3 was very poor. Antibiotic activity of T. virens and T. harzianum to Pythium spp. was stronger than that of T. koningii. Control efficacy against damping-off of radish was most enhanced under the treatment using the nematode-T. harzianum combination. On the contrary, the combinations of the nematodes and T. virens or T. koningii mostly did not increase or decreased their control effect vis-$\`{a}$-vis that of the nematodes or antagonistic fungi being used alone. The results suggest that the fungivorous nematodes may play a leading role in the disease control, and that the activity of the fungivorous nematodes may be activated by T. harzianum, but inhibited by T. koningii and T.virens.