[APWG] Putting the two patents on Cryptic Indigenous Pathogens for Knapweed to work!

[Craig Dremann]

Dear All,

Yesterday, I checked the US Patent Office search website at 
<http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/search-bool.html> 
(Term 1 = Knapweed, and Field 1 = Title).

I found TWO Knapweed biological control patents, and they both confirm
my theory that we can use "Cryptic Indigenous Pathogens" for weed
management in North America---and there's already two separate
inventions outlining how we can do that!

======================

The first one is the researcher from Hawaii that I was mentioning
yesterday, Eduardo Trujillo, who invented a method for selectively
killing knapweed with PATENT 5,112,381 & 5,455,219 by infecting the
knapweed with selected strains of the fungi PYTHIUM ROSTRATUM.  These
two patents have been assigned to the Colville Indian Tribe.

Fortunately, Dr. Trujillo deposited his discovered strains of the active
fungi in a public depository of fungi and baterial cultures, the ATCC 
<http://www.atcc.org/common/catalog/numSearch/index.cfm>.  
His strains are ATCC No. 20976, 20977 & 20978. 

You can read the details of his discovery on the US Patent web page, but
briefly, he found that you can spray knapweed with his strains of fungi,
mixed with a carrier of vermiculite & V8™ juice, the fungi selectively
kills the knapweed.

===========================================

THE SECOND PATENT takes another approach to knapweed bio-control, using
another species of fungi.

PATENT 4,929,270 Montana State University, Bozeman, MT uses a chemical
extracted of compounds produced by the fungi ALTERNARIA ALTERNATA, which
selectively kills knapweed while sparing other plants to which they are
applied.  This approach is very similar to inventing a specific
antibiotic pill, like Cipro, to kill a particular bacteria.

The approached of this attack on the knapweed, was to locate "a host
specific or selective pathogen of spotted knapweed and employing either
the pathogen or its phytotoxic metabolites as control agents."

After a long search, an infected plant of the black leaf blighted
Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) was found, and the pathogen was identified
as Alternaria alternata and grown in liquid culture and shown to produce
a number of phytotoxins.  According to the patent, this is the first
time that a host-specific "weed antibiotic" [my term] has been isolated
from a weed pathogen.   

The patent tells the story of the discovery: 

"Nearly two months of intense searching through several counties in
southwestern Montana and an examination of about twelve hundred plants
culminated in the discovery of a seriously compromised plant on the
northern slope of Big Butte, a five hundred foot cinder cone in Butte,
Montana. Approximately thirty percent of the aerial leaves and ninety
percent of the flowers of the plant were covered by either black fungal
growth or dark brown, weeping lesions."

SEE HOW DIFFICULT it can be to search for these "Cryptic Indigenous
Pathogens"?---But I am almost 100% certain that at least one "Cryptic
Indigenous Pathogen" can be found for each and every weed species we
have in North American, if we make the investment to look as hard as the
reasearchers in Montana did for this one.

The patent continues to tell how the fungus was grown, and a group of
phytotoxic compounds produced by the fungus were purified into powders,
and the individual phytotoxins that are knapweed-specific, were
separated out.  

Apparently the knapweed-specific compounds, were found to be
"selectively phytotoxic for knapweed while sparing other plants to which
they are applied."   There was also a test on the compound's toxicity on
brineshrimp, to see if there was any problem with aquatic life, and no
brineshrimp were killed in the experiment.

==================

SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?  I think that it's really, really exciting
that there already exists, at least two different knapweed-specific
compounds, that today could be out eradicating the millions of acres of
knapweed in the West---but why aren't they?

GRANTS, TO PUT THESE TWO PATENTS TO WORK: It is probably going to take
grants from the DOD, USDA, BLM, BIA, USFS, Federal Highways
Administration, State DOTs, and the USFWS---all the public agencies that
really, really need to manage knapweeds on their lands.  

And perhaps also contributions, or at least the political envolvement of
other land managers, and environemental groups, like The Nature
Conservancy, NRDC, the Sierra Club and Audubon.  

Big inventments will need to be made, to take these two inventions, from
very interesting patented inventions that are just sitting around 
gethering dust, to commercially-available products that anyone could
purchase for use.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA (650) 325-7333