Developments of biological disease control for soil-borne plant pathogens

摘要

Concern over the impact of chemical pesticides in the environment continues to drive the search for alternative disease control measures. This has become more important for the control of soil-borne plant pathogens in recent years with the loss of thesoil sterilant methyl bromide and the reduction in availability of other products due to the lack of re-registration of some active ingredients previously available. Not surprisingly, the number of commercial biological control agents (BCAs) for soil-borne plant pathogens has gradually increased over the last few years. More than 20 bacterial and 30 fungal products are available worldwide, dominated by Bacillus, Pseudomonas and Trichoderma species which are easy to grow in culture and, in the case of Bacillus species, produce long-lasting spores.