2010, Volume XIII, Issue 1

NEWS FROM INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES

Scientists at the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have identified a potentially important biocontrol agent for protecting corn and cereal crops from Fusarium verticilloides infection.
Produced by Fusarium verticilloides and other Fusarium spp, fumonisin mycotoxins are associated with a wide range of serious plant, animal, and human diseases. In addition to causing equine leukoencephalomalacia and cardiac edema in swine, fumonisin exposure may be linked to esophageal cancer and neural tube defects in humans.

The newly discovered compound Leu7-surfactin is produced by Bacillus mojavenus strain RRC101, a bacterium that naturally occurs in corn and other plants. Although the bacterium is already used to control fungal infections, the ARS microbiologists were the first to identify it as the agent that inhibits Fusarium infection. A biosurfactant, Leu7-surfactin eventually kills the infection by dissolving the lipid membranes inside the fungus.

According to the ARS researchers, Leu7-surfactin retains its antibiotic effect on F. verticilloides infections even at concentrations as low as 20 micrograms per liter of liquid.

For a full account of the researchers’ discovery see the following article: “Isolation and Characterization of Leu7-Surfactin from the Endophytic Bacterium Bacillus mojavensis RRC 101, a Biocontrol Agent for Fusarium verticillioides” M.E. Snook, D.M. Hinton, and C.W. Bacon, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2009, 57: 4287–4292.

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