title: Effect of nutrition and environmental factors on the endoparasitic fungus Esteya vermicola, a biocontrol agent against pine wilt disease.
abstract: The nematophagous fungus Esteya vermicola has tremendous potential for biological control. This species exhibits strong infectious activity against pinewood nematodes, whereas the study on the effect of nutrition and environmental factors is still of paucity. Carbon (C), nitrogen (N), pH value, temperature, and water activity have great impact on the fungal growth, sporulation, and germination. In nutrition study, the greatest number of conidia (2.36 × 10(9) per colony) was obtained at the C:N ratio of 100:1 with a carbon concentration 32 g l(-1). In addition, the germination rate and radial growth of E. vermicola were used to evaluate the effects of environmental conditions and they were optimized as following: pH 5.5, 26 °C and water activity of 0.98. Our results also confirmed that variation of environmental factors has a detrimental influence on the efficacy of active conidia and growth of fungus. Moreover, under above optimal condition, the biocontrol efficacy was significantly improved in regard to the increase of adhesive and mortality rate, which highlight the study on the application of E. vermicola as pine wilt disease biocontrol agent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Chungnam National University, Taejon, 305-764, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jianjie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Yongan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yuzhu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jingang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yunbo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lijuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Changkeun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sung
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D055155:Ophiostomatales / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D028223:Pinus / Q000382:microbiology; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000254:growth & development; D013696:Temperature; D014867:Water / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen