Biological control

What is biological control?

The term ‘Biological control’
 defined as "the action of parasites, predators, or pathogens in maintaining
another organism's population density at a longer average than would occur
in their absence."
 Biological control is the control of one organism by another
 to express the pest population management through disease causing
microorganisms or their by-products in the control of pest species.

 Generic terms
➢ Biological control is a pest control method with low environmental
impact and small contamination risk for humans, domestic animals
and the environment.
 Why use biological control?
 Chemical pesticides are:
▪ cost-effective
▪ easy to apply
▪ Implicated in ecological, environmental, and
human health problems
▪ Require yearly treatments
▪ Broad spectrum
Toxic to both beneficial and pathogenic species
Biological control agents:-
❖Expensive
❖Work intensive
❖Host specific
❖Non-toxic to human
❖Not a water contaminant concern
❖Once colonized may last for years
❖Only effect one or few species
❖are very easy to handle and apply to the
target and easy to manufacture
Requirements of successful biocontrol

1. Highly effective biocontrol strain must be

obtained or produced

a. Be able to compete and persist

b. Be able to colonize and propagate

c. Be non-pathogenic to host plant and

environment.
2. Inexpensive production and formulation of
agent must be developed

a. Production must result in biomass with

excellent shelf live

b. To be successful as agricultural agent

must be
i. Inexpensive
ii. Able to produce in large quantities
iii. Maintain viability
3. Delivery and application must permit
full expression of the agent

*** Must ensure agents will grow and achieve

their purpose
 the major natural enemies are

1- insects, known as entomophagous, The

entomophagous group is represented by
predators and parasitoids.

2- microorganisms, known as the

entomopathogens, which represented by
fungi, bacteria and viruses
Mode of Action of Biocontrol Agents

 Competition
 Antibiosis
 Mycoparasitism / Hyperparasitism
 Lytic enzymes
 Hydrogen cyanide
 Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR)
 Plant growth promotion.
 Competition: –
❖ Microorganism competes for space, minerals and
organic nutrients to propagate and survive in their
natural habitats.
❖ This has been reported in both rhizosphere as well
as phyllosphere.
❖ Competition for substrates is the most important
factor for heterotrophic soil fungi.
❖ competition between microorganisms for carbon,
nitrogen, O2, iron, and other nutrients
❖Example
P. fluorescens, VITCUS, prevents bacterial blotch
by competing with Fusarium and Pythium.
 Antibiosis :–
➢ defined as antagonism mediated by specific or
non –specific metabolites of microbial origin, by
lytic agents, enzymes, volatile compounds or
other toxic substances.

➢ inhibition of one organism by another as a result

of diffusion of an antibiotic.

- Antibiotic production common in soil-dwelling

bacteria and fungi

- Example: zwittermicin A production by B. cereus

against Phytophthora root rot in alfalfa
 Mycoparasitism / Hyperparasitism:-
❖ Occurs when the antagonist invades the pathogens
by secreting enzymes such as chitinases, celluloses,
glucanases and other lytic enzymes.
❖ The parasiting fungus is called hyperparasite and
the parasitized fungus as hypoparasite.
❖ the parasitism of one fungus by another
1- Direct contact
2- Cell wall degrading enzymes
3- Some produce antibiotics
❖Example
Trichoderma harzianum, BioTrek, used as seed
treatment against pathogenic fungus
 Lytic enzymes:
 Lysis is the complete or partial destruction of a cell
by enzymes.
 Lysis may be distinguished into two types, endolysis
and exolysis.

 Endolysis (autolysis)
 is the breakdown of the cytoplasm of a cell by the
cell’s own enzymes following death, which may be
caused by nutrient starvation or by antibiosis or
other toxins.
does not usually involve the destruction of the cell
wall.
 Lytic enzymes:
Exolysis (heterolysis)
 is the destruction of cell by the enzymes
another organism.
 Typically exolysis is the destruction of the
walls of an organism by chitinases,
cellulases etc. and
 this frequently results in the death of the
attacked cell.
 Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR):
 is the ability of an agent (a fungus, bacteria, virus,
chemical etc.) to induce plant defense mechanisms.

 Inoculation of plants with weak pathogens or non-

pathogens leads to induced systemic plant resistance
against subsequent challenge by pathogens.

 Induced resistance operates against a wide range of

pathogens and can persist for 3-6 weeks.

 induced systemic resistance (ISR) through fortifying

the physical and mechanical strength of cell wall.
 Plant growth promotion
 Biocontrol agents also produce growth hormones
like, Auxins, Cytokinin, Gibberellins etc.

 The studies on mechanism of growth promotion

indicated that PGPR promotes plant growth,

 directly by production of plant growth regulators or

 indirectly by stimulating nutrient uptake, by

producing siderophores or antibiotics to protect
plant from soil borne pathogens or deleterious
rhizosphere organisms
 Bacillus thuringiensis (BT(:
 Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is an aerobic, gram positive, spore
forming soil bacterium

 unusual ability to produce endogenous different kinds of crystals

protein inclusions during its sporulation

 worldwide for control of many important plant pests - mainly

caterpillars of the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) but also
mosquito larvae, and simuliid blackflies

 The commercial Bt products are powders containing a mixture of

dried spores and toxin crystals.

 They are applied to leaves or other environments where the insect

larvae feed.
:Bacillus thuringiensis
(BT(

 toxic effects disappeared after a few days,

 But bacteria were still surviving as spores 120 days later,

and one fifth were still alive after a year.

 There are different strains of B. thuringiensis. Each

strain of this bacterium produces a different mix of
proteins, and specifically kills one or a few related species
of insect larvae.

 Bt produces a protein known as endotoxins or Cry

proteins that can bind to a larval gut receptor, thereby
causing the insect larvae to starve.
 Mode of action of Bt
 Cry and Bt proteins is that they are stomach poisons and
must be ingested for toxicity.
 ingestion by the susceptible insect larvae, protoxins are
solubilized in the high alkaline pH of midgut,
 and proteolytically digested by midgut proteinases to
release the toxic fragments,
 First, the activated toxin binds to receptors located on the
apical microvillus membrane of epithelial midgut cells,
 Binding of the toxin to the receptor leads to change in the
toxin’s conformation, allowing toxin insertion into the
membrane, then forms a pore that leads to osmotic cell
lysis and larval death
Thank you
 Hydrogen cyanide:-
 Many rhizobacteria produce hydrogen cyanide.

 and this has been shown to play direct as well as

indirect role in biological control of plant
diseases

 The florescent pseudomonas themselves produce

HCN and are able to suppress the pathogens