[APWG] Fw: Fungal control of kudzu -- fyi

[Jil_Swearingen at nps.gov]

Hi,

Finally, a little hand from Nature in the form of a pathogen may come to
the aid of exotic plant managers and natural areas plagued by the "vine
that ate the South."  If it's not too late. We should keep an eye out for
symptoms of this fungal disease.

Thanks,

Jil

__________________
JIL M SWEARINGEN
Invasive Species Specialist
NPS National Capital Region
Center for Urban Ecology
4598 MacArthur Blvd. NW
Washington DC 20007
202-342-1443, ex 218
http://www.nps.gov/cue
http://www.invasive.org/weedus

----- Forwarded by Jil Swearingen/NCR/NPS on 07/22/2009 11:11 AM -----
                                                                           
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http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090716.htm


Fungus Tapped to Take on Kudzu
By Jan Suszkiw
July 16, 2009

Kudzu, "The Vine that Ate the South," could meet its match in a naturally
occurring fungus that Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have
formulated as a biologically based herbicide.

By one estimate, kudzu spreads at the rate of 150,000 acres annually,
easily outpacing the use of herbicide spraying and mowing, as well
increasing the costs of these controls by $6 million annually.

But in Stoneville, Miss., ARS plant pathologist Doug Boyette and colleagues
are testing a fungus named Myrothecium verrucaria, which infects kudzu with
an astonishing speed of its own. In fact, the fungus works so quickly that
kudzu plants sprayed with it in the morning start showing signs of damage
by mid-afternoon, according to Boyette, with the ARS Southern Weed Science
Research Unit in Stoneville.

He first began working with M. verrucaria in 1998, when a Louisiana Tech
University scientist furnished him with isolates from diseased sicklepod
specimens. In greenhouse experiments, spray formulations killed 100 percent
of kudzu seedlings and 90 to 100 percent of older plants in outdoor trials.
Myrothecium also worked its anti-kudzu magic under a wide range of
conditions, including the absence of dew.

Additionally, host-range tests in 2005 showed that Myrothecium caused
little or no injury to many of the woody plants known to occur in
kudzu-infested habitats, including oak, cedar, pine, hickory, pecan,
sassafras and blackberry.

A few companies expressed interest, but only if the fungus' production of
toxins called trichothecenes could be reduced or stopped. Boyette's group
examined several approaches, settling on a method of growing Myrothecium in
a fermenter on a liquid diet instead of a solid one. Not only did this stop
trichothecene production or reduce it to acceptable levels, the method also
extended the fungus' shelf life and potency under field conditions.

Besides kudzu, Myrothecium also showed potential as a pre-emergence
bioherbicide, controlling purslane and spurge in transplanted tomatoes.

Read more about the research in the July 2009 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine.

ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.