Suppression of pine wilt disease by an antibacterial agent, oxolinic acid.
BACKGROUND
Pine wilt disease (PWD) is very complex and has been reported to be caused by pine wood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Steiner & Buhrer) Nickle, and its accompanying bacteria. However, there is no report on the control of PWD by antibacterial agent. The present study was performed to investigate disease control efficacy of antibacterial agents against PWD.


RESULTS
Among six antibacterial antibiotics tested, oxolinic acid (OA) showed the strongest antibacterial activity against five bacteria isolated from three strains of pine wood nematode. In in vivo assay, it effectively suppressed the development of PWD in three-year-old seedlings of Pinus densiflora Sieb. & Zucc.; it showed 71% control when injected at 3 mg per seedling. A mixture of OA and the nematicidal agent abamectin (Ab) showed higher disease control efficacy against PWD than either OA or Ab alone. In addition, OA alone and a mixture of OA and Ab also controlled PWD in approximately 20-year-old pine trees under field conditions.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first report on the suppression of PWD by OA. The result strongly indicates that PWD could be controlled by antibacterial antibiotic alone and a combination of antibacterial and nematicidal agents.
Green Chemistry Division, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Daejeon 305-600, Republic of Korea.
Hyeok Ran
HR
Kwon
Gyung Ja
GJ
Choi
Yong Ho
YH
Choi
Kyoung Soo
KS
Jang
Nack-Do
ND
Sung
Mun Seong
MS
Kang
Yilseong
Y
Moon
Seung Kyu
SK
Lee
Jin-Cheol
JC
Kim
D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D010093:Oxolinic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*; D028223:Pinus / Q000382:microbiology*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D017187:Tylenchida / Q000187:drug effects / Q000382:microbiology
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D010093:Oxolinic Acid