Biological Control of Powdery Mildew by Antibiotic-producing Microorganisms Antagonistic to Erysiphe graminis

Seventy four microorganisms, which have antagonistic activity against to Fusarium culmorum, were tested for their inhibitory effect on colony development of obligate biotroph Erysiphe graminis f. sp. hordei Marchal, the causal agent of powdery mildew on barley plants. Of these, 13 actinomycetes isolates were shown to reduce the colony development of mildew completely by application of their 10% cell-free culture filtrates on barley leaves. An Isolate, A252, was the most powerful antagonist and its antifungal activity was further assessed. The colony development of mildew was significantly reduced by application of the 1% cell-free culture filtrate of isolate A252. In comparison to the control, the protective and curative application of 10% cell-free culture filtrate from A252 showed 88.5% and 96.1% reduction of colony numbers respectively. By the protective application, 68.3% of the inhibition was observed after 9 days of treatment, thus showed prolonged inhibitory effect. In vitro test, complete inhibition of the mycelial growth of Microdochium nivale was achieved by the treatment of 1% A252 culture filtrate and 80.2% of inhibition was observed by the 0.1% treatment.