Muscodor albus fungi can combat a mold,
Botrytis cinerea, that spoils fresh table grapes like these, according
to research by ARS scientists and industry collaborators. Click the image
for more information about it.
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Table Grapes’ New Ally: Muscodor albus
By Marcia Wood
April 16, 2010 Small but mighty, a beneficial microbe
called Muscodor albus may help protect fresh grapes from troublesome
gray mold. Experiments conducted over the past several years by
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant
pathologist
Joseph
L. Smilanick and his ARS and industry colleagues have shown that M.
albus can combat Botrytis cinerea, the organism that causes gray
mold.
Gray mold can ruin the taste and appearance of fresh-market grapes,
according to Smilanick.
For organic growers, Botrytis is especially troublesome because these
producers can’t use the typical treatment, sulfur dioxide, to quell it.
That’s why, if commercialized, M. albus could benefit conventional
and organic growers alike.
Smilanick, who is based at the ARS
San
Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center near Parlier, Calif.,
collaborated in Muscodor experiments with microbiologist
Monir
Mansour and visiting scientist Franka M. Gabler—both at
Parlier—and with industry colleagues.
Muscodor acts as a natural fumigant by emitting compounds, harmless
to people and animals, that can kill or inhibit the spread of certain other
microbes, such as B. cinerea. For example, in experiments with packaged
Thompson Seedless grapes, Smilanick and co-investigators found that
Muscodor reduced the incidence of Botrytis-infected grapes by up
to 85 percent.
A 2009 article in the journal Plant Disease
documents their findings.
ARS and the California Table Grape
Commission funded the research. ARS is the chief intramural scientific
research agency of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA). The Muscodor research contributes to
international food security, a USDA priority.
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