The development and potential role of mycoherbicides for forestry

1992 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 736-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Wall ◽  
R. Prasad ◽  
S. F. Shamoun
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Fungal Pathogens ◽  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Classical Biological Control ◽  
Vegetation Management ◽  
Vegetation Control ◽  
Indigenous Plant ◽  
Target Effects

With increasing intensification of forest management and limited options for control of competing vegetation, there is need for research on alternative vegetation management methods, including biological control. Most forest weeds in Canada are native species with useful as well as detrimental roles, and therefore classical biological control with introduced natural enemies generally cannot be considered. At present, use of native fungal pathogens, or mycoherbicides, is one of the most promising approaches, and recent advancements in agriculture indicate that effective, site-specific controls using mycoherbicides are possible. Mycoherbicide use in forestry appears attractive because of the likelihood of fewer off-target effects than present vegetation management methods and because it could provide either selective controls for specific weeds or broad spectrum controls.Vegetation management in forestry has some unique aspects which will make the development of biological controls different from that in agriculture. There are many indigenous plant pathogens that are potential mycoherbicides, but their efficacy will need to be enhanced by adjuvants, stress treatments, and integration with other vegetation control practices. Currently, at three Canadian institutions and several other locations worldwide, there are research programs on biological control of forest vegetation.

scholarly journals Limited host range in the idiobiont parasitoid Phymasticus coffea, a prospective biological control agent of the coffee pest Hypothenemus hampei in Hawaii

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fazila Yousuf ◽  
Peter A. Follett ◽  
Conrad P. D. T. Gillett ◽  
David Honsberger ◽  
Lourdes Chamorro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Biological Control Agent ◽  
Classical Biological Control ◽  
Environmental Safety ◽  
Control Agent ◽  
Hypothenemus Hampei ◽  
Parasitism Rate ◽  
Limited Host Range ◽  
Parasitoid Development

AbstractPhymastichus coffea LaSalle (Hymenoptera:Eulophidae) is an adult endoparasitoid of the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera:Curculionidae:Scolytinae), which has been introduced in many coffee producing countries as a biological control agent. To determine the effectiveness of P. coffea against H. hampei and environmental safety for release in Hawaii, we investigated the host selection and parasitism response of adult females to 43 different species of Coleoptera, including 23 Scolytinae (six Hypothenemus species and 17 others), and four additional Curculionidae. Non-target testing included Hawaiian endemic, exotic and beneficial coleopteran species. Using a no-choice laboratory bioassay, we demonstrated that P. coffea was only able to parasitize the target host H. hampei and four other adventive species of Hypothenemus: H. obscurus, H. seriatus, H. birmanus and H. crudiae. Hypothenemus hampei had the highest parasitism rate and shortest parasitoid development time of the five parasitized Hypothenemus spp. Parasitism and parasitoid emergence decreased with decreasing phylogenetic relatedness of the Hypothenemus spp. to H. hampei, and the most distantly related species, H. eruditus, was not parasitized. These results suggest that the risk of harmful non-target impacts is low because there are no native species of Hypothenemus in Hawaii, and P. coffea could be safely introduced for classical biological control of H. hampei in Hawaii.

scholarly journals The Potential of Rhizoctonia-Like Fungi for the Biological Protection of Cereals against Fungal Pathogens

Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 349
Author(s):  
Dominik Bleša ◽  
Pavel Matušinský ◽  
Romana Sedmíková ◽  
Milan Baláž
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Fungal Pathogens ◽  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Higher Plants ◽  
Fusarium Culmorum ◽  
Suppressive Effect ◽  
Plant Production ◽  
Shoot Biomass ◽  
Organic Substrates

The use of biological control is becoming a common practice in plant production. One overlooked group of organisms potentially suitable for biological control are Rhizoctonia-like (Rh-like) fungi. Some of them are capable of forming endophytic associations with a large group of higher plants as well as mycorrhizal symbioses. Various benefits of endophytic associations were proved, including amelioration of devastating effects of pathogens such as Fusarium culmorum. The advantage of Rh-like endophytes over strictly biotrophic mycorrhizal organisms is the possibility of their cultivation on organic substrates, which makes their use more suitable for production. We focused on abilities of five Rh-like fungi isolated from orchid mycorrhizas, endophytic fungi Serendipita indica, Microdochium bolleyi and pathogenic Ceratobasidium cereale to inhibit the growth of pathogenic F. culmorum or Pyrenophora teres in vitro. We also analysed their suppressive effect on wheat infection by F. culmorum in a growth chamber, as well as an effect on barley under field conditions. Some of the Rh-like fungi affected the growth of plant pathogens in vitro, then the interaction with plants was tested. Beneficial effect was especially noted in the pot experiments, where wheat plants were negatively influenced by F. culmorum. Inoculation with S. indica caused higher dry shoot biomass in comparison to plants treated with fungicide. Prospective for future work are the effects of these endophytes on plant signalling pathways, factors affecting the level of colonization and surviving of infectious particles.

Contrasting research approaches to managing mistletoes in commercial forests and wooded pasturesThis minireview is one of a collection of papers based on a presentation from the Stem and Shoot Fungal Pathogens and Parasitic Plants: the Values of Biological Diversity session of the XXII International Union of Forestry Research Organization World Congress meeting held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, in 2005.

Botany ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Reid ◽  
Simon F. Shamoun
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Fungal Pathogens ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Classical Biological Control ◽  
Dwarf Mistletoe ◽  
Silvicultural Treatments ◽  
Inundative Biological Control

Many mistletoe species are pests in agricultural and forest ecosystems throughout the world. Mistletoes are unusual “weeds” as they are generally endemic to areas where they achieve pest status and, therefore, classical biological control and broad-scale herbicidal control are usually impractical. In North American coniferous forests, dwarf mistletoe ( Arceuthobium spp.) infection results in major commercial losses and poses a public liability in recreation settings. Hyperparasitic fungi have potential as biological control agents of dwarf mistletoe, including species which attack shoots, berries, and the endophytic systems of dwarf mistletoe. Development of an inundative biological control strategy will be useful in situations where traditional silvicultural control is impractical or undesirable. In southern Australia, farm eucalypts are often attacked and killed by mistletoes ( Amyema spp.) in grazed landscapes where tree decline and biodiversity loss are major forms of land degradation. Although long-term strategies to achieve a balance between mistletoe and host abundance are promoted, many graziers want short-term options to treat severely infected trees. Recent research has revisited the efficiency and efficacy of silvicultural treatments and selective herbicides in appropriate situations. The results of recent research on these diverse management strategies in North America and Australia are summarized.

scholarly journals Comparative Genomics and Functional Studies of Wheat BED-NLR Loci

Genes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1406
Author(s):  
Clemence Marchal ◽  
Georg Haberer ◽  
Manuel Spannagl ◽  
Cristobal Uauy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cell Death ◽  
Fungal Pathogens ◽  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Functional Studies ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
Binding Factor ◽  
Localization Signal ◽  
Integrated Domains ◽  
Genomic Regions

Nucleotide-binding leucine-rich-repeat (LRR) receptors (NLRs) with non-canonical integrated domains (NLR-IDs) are widespread in plant genomes. Zinc-finger BED (named after the Drosophila proteins Boundary Element-Associated Factor and DNA Replication-related Element binding Factor, named BED hereafter) are among the most frequently found IDs. Five BED-NLRs conferring resistance against bacterial and fungal pathogens have been characterized. However, it is unknown whether BED-NLRs function in a manner similar to other NLR-IDs. Here, we used chromosome-level assemblies of wheat to explore the Yr7 and Yr5a genomic regions and show that, unlike known NLR-ID loci, there is no evidence for a NLR-partner in their vicinity. Using neighbor-network analyses, we observed that BED domains from BED-NLRs share more similarities with BED domains from single-BED proteins and from BED-containing proteins harboring domains that are conserved in transposases. We identified a nuclear localization signal (NLS) in Yr7, Yr5, and the other characterized BED-NLRs. We thus propose that this is a feature of BED-NLRs that confer resistance to plant pathogens. We show that the NLS was functional in truncated versions of the Yr7 protein when expressed in N. benthamiana. We did not observe cell-death upon the overexpression of Yr7 full-length, truncated, and ‘MHD’ variants in N. benthamiana. This suggests that either this system is not suitable to study BED-NLR signaling or that BED-NLRs require additional components to trigger cell death. These results define novel future directions to further understand the role of BED domains in BED-NLR mediated resistance.

scholarly journals Successful Invasions and Failed Biocontrol: The Role of Antagonistic Species Interactions

BioScience ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (9) ◽  
pp. 711-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley N Schulz ◽  
Rima D Lucardi ◽  
Travis D Marsico
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Classical Biological Control ◽  
Enemy Release Hypothesis ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Enemy Release ◽  
Nonnative Species ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Top Down

Abstract Understanding the successes and failures of nonnative species remains challenging. In recent decades, researchers have developed the enemy release hypothesis and other antagonist hypotheses, which posit that nonnative species either fail or succeed in a novel range because of the presence or absence of antagonists. The premise of classical biological control of invasive species is that top-down control works. We identify twelve existing hypotheses that address the roles that antagonists from many trophic levels play during plant and insect invasions in natural environments. We outline a unifying framework of antagonist hypotheses to simplify the relatedness among the hypotheses, incorporate the role of top-down and bottom-up influences on nonnative species, and encourage expansion of experimental assessments of antagonist hypotheses to include belowground and fourth trophic level antagonists. A mechanistic understanding of antagonists and their impacts on nonnative species is critical in a changing world.

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