The Need

Soil-borne plant diseases are responsible for 10% reduction in U.S. vegetable crop yields each year. Conventional pesticides utilized to address crop diseases and pests have been proven to be detrimental to overall ecology and human health. A fraction of the total bacteria strains present in soil microbe populations can reduce the development of soil-borne plant diseases. This has made biopesticides an attractive alternative for biocontrol purposes in agriculture. However, the standard process used to identify beneficial soil bacteria only identifies a limited set of genera for biopesticide applications. Thus, the most critical development in distributing biopesticides throughout agriculture is dependent on identifying specific microbe subsets which will suppress soil-borne plant diseases for a variety of vegetable crops.

The Technology

Researchers at The Ohio State University, led by Dr. Brian McSpadden, discovered novel subsets of soil and root microflora for use as a biopesticide on various crops using a microbial fingerprinting approach. Pathogen inhibition and lesion suppression of Mitsuaria spp. and Burkholderia spp. have been characterized and tested in laboratory and greenhouse studies. The biopesticides would be a useful alternative to traditional pesticides in the market.

Commercial Applications

• Biopesticides
• Agriculture
• Enviromental

Benefits/Advantages

• Novel phylogeny and protection of associated activities
• Suppresses fungal and oomycete plant pathogen growth when applied to plant material or soil
• Reduce plant disease severity in infected seedlings
• Can be used with monocots, dicots, vegetable crops and root crops