Myxobacteria as a Means of Controlling
Agricultural Plant Pathogens.
Cameron Finley & Daniel Wall
Molecular Biology Department
PROPOSED RESEARCH PROJECT
Introduction
Methods
Myxobacteria are soil microbes that
display swarming motility and predate
on other microbes utilizing antibiotics to
and hydrolytic enzymes to neutralize,
kill and digest their prey. It has been
previously shown that myxobacteria are
effective killers of several pathogenic
fungi of strawberries (1). However,
further work into use of myxobacteria to
control plant pathogens of other crops
(such as corn, barley, and sugar beets)
has not been conducted. Additionally, no
work has been done to show that
myxobacteria can actively control
pathogens within soil or when the
pathogens are exposed to their plant
hosts.
• Microbial kill assays against pathogens will be conducted using various laboratory strains of
myxobacteria as well as environmental isolates on agar plates.
• Agricultural soils will be collected and autoclaved to eliminate interaction of uncontrolled microbes.
• The sterilized soil samples will be used to conduct further kill assays to more closely mimic the
natural environment.
• Finally, corn, barley, and sugar beets will be grown in a controlled environment and exposed to their
respective pathogens. Subsequently, myxobacteria will be introduced to the infected plants in order to
determine whether crop disease can be prevented.
Data Analysis
The myxobacteria candidates of the initial kill assay will compared for killing potential by 2-sample-ttest. The best predators will then be tested in a secondary soil screening against a control in which no
myxobacteria are introduced using a 2-sample-t-test to determine whether there is a significant
difference over the control. Lastly, the results of the final plant test will be modeled using simple linear
regression to show whether there is a true correlation between the presence of myxobacteria and the
severity of pathogenic infection.
Statement of the
Problem
This research will examine whether or
not the predatory myxobacteria can be
exploited to managed various pathogens
of agricultural crops such as barley,
corn, and sugar beets.
Plant pathogens cause substantial
economic damages. It has been estimated
that $33 billion of productively are lost
due to agricultural plant pathogens in the
US alone (3). If myxobacteria can be
shown to effectively treat infected
agricultural crops, it may have important
agricultural consequences.
References
1. C.T. Bull, K.G. Shetty, and K.V.
Subbarao. August 2002. Interactions
Between Myxobacteria, Plant
Pathogenic Fungi, and Biocontrol
Agents. Plant Disease. Volume 86 No.
889-896.
2. Soltis, Greg. 2/03/2009. Cluster’s
Last Stand. POPSCI.
http://www.popsci.com/node/31695
3. Pimentel, David. Biological
Invasions: Economic and
Environmental Costs of Alien Plant,
Animal, and Microbe Species. CRC
Press. 2002.
Acknowledgements
Hypothesis
Based upon previous work showing that
myxobacteria are effective killers of
microbial pathogens1, it is hypothesized
that myxobacteria will control microbial
pathogens of corn, barley, and sugar
beets in soil and within the exposed
plant themselves.
Importance
of the Study
I thank University of Wyoming McNair Scholars Program and
Zackie Salmon, Susan Stoddard, and Pilar Flores for their
support.
I thank Dr. Daniel Wall, Arup Dey, and Darshankumar Pathak
of the UW Molecular Biology Department for their support.
Figure 1: Inhibition of fungus P. capsici by by different myxobacteria modeled as percent fungal growth as compared to the control
(1).