Project Overview
Commodities
- Agronomic: corn, rice, wheat
Practices
- Pest Management: biological control, integrated pest management
Proposal abstract:
The purpose of this project is to evaluate Cladosporium species, and the antifungal compounds they produce, as a potential biocontrol of Bipolaris plant pathogens. Bipolaris is a genus of fungal pathogens causing leaf spots, crown and root rot diseases on agronomic and high-value crops, including rice, wheat, corn, and barley. Species of Cladosporium have antagonistic effects on rusts and other fungal pathogens. In 2017 and 2018, we co-isolated Bipolaris spp. and Cladosporium spp. from necrotic lesions from multiple grass species and showed that co-inoculation of Bipolaris and Cladosporium reduces disease severity on grass. This project aims to extend this work to agronomically important Bipolaris species by testing the hypothesis that natural compounds from Cladosporium with antifungal properties can control diseases of rice, corn and wheat caused by Bipolaris species. We propose to test for antagonism of Cladosporium isolates against B. oryzae, B. maydis and B. sorokiniana in vitro and in co-inoculations of plants. We will also extract and directly test the effects of antifungal compounds from Cladosporium on these pathogens. This project aims to increase the yield of staple crops by identifying a potential biological control and compounds of natural origin for management of economically important pathogens.
Project objectives from proposal:
- Evaluate the in vitro interaction of Cladosporium cladosporioides on B. oryzae, B. sorokiniana, and B. maydis.
- Evaluate the effect of Cladosporium cladosporioides on severity of disease caused by B. oryzae, B. sorokiniana, and B. maydis on rice, wheat and corn respectively.
- Extract chemical compounds having antifungal properties from Cladosporium cladosporioides and test these natural compounds against Biopolaris.