Beneficial microbes for plant disease control

Marrone Bio Innovations (MBI) creates products from microorganisms isolated from samples collected from unique niches and habitats such as flowers, insects, soil and composts. Proprietary technology is used to isolate and screen naturally occurring microorganisms and plant extracts in a highly efficient manner and to identify those that may have novel, effective and safe pest management or plant health promoting characteristics. Natural product chemistry is then employed to analyze and characterize the compound structures produced by the microorganisms. Through this analysis, compounds that contain harmful toxins can be quickly eliminated and product candidates identified for further development and commercialization. Using these methods, in excess of 16,000 thousand microorganisms have been screened and numerous product candidates identified that display activity against a wide range of targets including insects, nematodes, weeds and plant diseases. This talk will focus on the biofungicide discovery platform and present case studies of selected prototype products. For example, a strain of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens that has broad spectrum activity against a range of foliar fungal and bacterial plant pathogens, in particular downy mildew of grapes. Field performance and mode of action studies will be presented and the use of this strain alone and in combination with other biological and/or chemical products will be discussed. Plant health attributes detected in the absence of disease, such as increases in root/shoot biomass and marketable yield, will also be outlined and a dual commercialization pathway discussed.