Author
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Kuykendall, Larry |
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Submitted to: Sugar Journal
Publication Type: Other Publication Acceptance Date: 7/10/2001 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Some helpful microbes form and excrete compounds that are poisonous to some microbial pathogens in the rhizospheres and phyllospheres of the important sugar crop Beta vulgaris. Microbes compete with one another and in a very real sense they actually wage chemical warfare with each other for ecological "niches" or places to live such as the roots and leaves of sugar beets. Some North Dakota isolates of sugar beet root-associated bacteria are now being documented as bitter rivals of Cercospora beticola that causes leafspot disease in sugar beet. Characterization tests show they belong to the genus Pseudomonas and may represent at least one and perhaps more new species as yet unknown to bacteriology. If they test negative for the causation of any diseases, perhaps these new antagonistic bacteria could be sprayed instead of the chemical fungicides currently used in an attempt to control Cercospora. If for some reason that approach fails, we plan to isolate the relevant genes, or the specific DNA pieces that contain the biological blueprints for the production of anti-Cercospora substances, for example, from the bacteria and then insert them into the chromosomes of the crop plant itself. A gene activator can be employed to allow the introduced gene to be expressed in the leaves. Technical Abstract: Not needed. |
