Leveraging culture collections for the discovery and development of microbial biological control agents

Authors: Rooney, Alejandro - Alex

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/20/2017
Publication Date: 2/24/2017
Citation: Rooney, A.P. 2017. Leveraging culture collections for the discovery and development of microbial biological control agents. Meeting Abstract.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The incorporation of living microbial biological control agents into integrated pest management programs is highly desirable because it reduces the use of chemical insecticides harmful to livestock, humans and the environment. In addition, it provides an alternative means to combat resistance to chemical insecticides. However, the commercial development of living microbial agents for insect pest control has lagged far behind in comparison to the development of chemical pesticides. Limited success in commercializing living microbial agents is due in large part to the lack of effective strains to produce consistent pest control under field conditions. One possible solution is to genetically improve existing production strains, but this could eliminate the desired property of an agent being regarded as “natural”. One alternative is to conduct large scale screening studies of samples from environmental and other sources. Unfortunately, there is a tendency in some circles to label such studies as “fishing expeditions”, although they need not be if care is taken to design them in a rationale way based on clear and focused objective that attack a well-defined question or hypothesis. For that purpose, utilization of culture collection resources and scientific expertise is an important strategy. In this presentation, an overview is given of how culture collections can be leveraged to develop new microbial biocontrol agents.