Fungal and Bacterial Pesticides Registered or Launched by Syngenta, FMC, ADAMA, Mitsui and others in 2020-2023

Fungal and bacterial pesticides are used to combat a variety of pests that cause the destruction of the agricultural economy. Such microbial pesticides have helped reduce the use of chemical pesticides and residues, and assisted in resistance management.

Below is an overview of fungal and bacterial pesticides registered or launched by multinationals and other companies in 2020-2023.

Bacillus velezensis functions as both fungicide and nematicide

Bacillus, containing a large number of species, are important plant growth promoting rhizobacteria that are widely used in crop production around the world. These bacteria produce various biologically active secondary metabolites that inhibit the growth of plant pathogens and harmful rhizospheric microorganisms. Bacillus also release substances that act on crops to facilitate growth and development. Benefitting from the ability of endospore formation, Bacillus can survive in hot and dry conditions, and be formulated into stable dry powders with long shelf lives.

Bacillus velezensis is one of the most widely used Bacillus species, due to its ability to protect crops from pests. For example, B. velezensis FZB42 (formerly B. amyloliquefaciens FZB42), produces bioactive metabolites, including amylocyclicin, bacilysin, bacillomycin-D, bacillaene, difficidin, fengycin, macrolactin, plantazolicin, surfactin and others, which suppress pathogens [1]. In addition, the metabolite bacillibactin plays a key role in promoting the acquisition of Fe³⁺ from minerals and organic compounds in the soil, which inhibits pathogens from absorbing these essential substances [2]. B. velezensis combats not only bacterial and fungal phytopathogens, but also inhibits nematode reproduction, egg hatching and juvenile survival [3]. There is also an interaction between the beneficial bacteria and plants that involves protection. Surfactin secreted by B. velezensis FZB42 can enhance the defense responses of plant roots [4]. Plant roots can release some molecules that attract B. velezensis that move towards the root surface to form biofilms, which promote plant growth and protect plants from infectious microbes by releasing antimicrobial compounds. 

B. velezensis secretes metabolites that promote plant growth. One of these metabolites is cytokinin [5]. Some B. velezensis releases volatile organic compounds that boost crop growth by regulating auxin homeostasis [6]. 

B. velezensis can be found in several multinationals’ new product launches. For example, Syngenta launched ARVATICO and CERTANO, which both contain B. velezensis isolate CNPSo 3602, to control nematodes and pathogens for the Brazilian market. ARVATICO, in Syngenta's Seedcare portfolio, was registered to combat nematodes, such as Heterodera glycines, Pratylenchus brachyurus and Meloidogyne incognita, as well as diseases, such as Fusarium solani, Macrophomina phaseolina and Rhizoctonia solani. CERTANO is Syngenta's first BioSolution with bionematicide, biofungicide and growth promoting action in one formulation for sugarcane, providing immediate and prolonged effects compatible with other products.

Beauveria bassiana - The most common fungal insecticide

Beauveria bassiana is a widely studied entomopathogenic fungus that causes white muscardine disease in various insects, such as whiteflies, aphids, thrips, grasshoppers and mites, but it is generally considered safe to beneficial insects. Unlike some bacterial and viral pesticides, it does not need to be ingested by the host to cause infection, and simple contact to its spores can infect a host. B. bassiana grows rapidly in the host and consumes its body while secreting toxins, such as beauvericin, bassianin, bassianolide, beauverolides, tenellin, oosporein, oxalic acid, calcium oxalate crystals, and beauvericins [7-9]. The same toxins may have different modes of action on pathogenicity in different hosts, while their lethal mechanisms could include destroying the host’s epidermis to penetrate the hyphae, absorbing nutrients and water in the host’s body, hindering the functions of the immune system, blocking of the host’s spiracles, disrupting nerve conduction and others [10-12]. When the host is dead, the fungus grows toward the outside of the host through the cuticle and covers the corpse with white mold, which produces a large number of infective spores to infect more hosts.

B. bassiana provides other benefits to plants. It colonizes various crops, such as wheat, soybean, rice, bean, onion, tomato, palm, grape, potato and cotton, and facilities crop growth. As an endophyte, it can be applied through foliar spraying, soil irrigation, seed treatment and other methods [13].

However, some factors limit the widespread adoption of such biopesticides. It takes a long time to kill insects. B. bassiana is most effective when humidity is above 90% and the temperature is 25°C. It does not grow when temperatures are above 32 °C. And infecting or colonizing mammals is possible under normal circumstances.

Several companies launched/registered B. bassiana-based insecticides over the past three years. 

Syngenta provides ARBIOGY (B. bassiana ATCC 74040) in Italy to control thrips, mites, leafhoppers, whiteflies, fruit and cherry flies that affect vines, stone fruit, and floral and ornamental crops. This oil dispersion was developed for the long conservation of spores and the optimum efficacy of microbes in the product. 

Symborg’s B. bassiana 203 is approved by the European Commission to be included as an insecticide. According to the company, this strain shows great efficacy against insect pests and is tolerant to adverse environmental conditions, as it was isolated from extreme conditions. Due to its mode of actions, the risk of resistance developed by pests is very low. Symborg is developing new formulations and applications for the stain to meet the demand for the needs of different farming practices.

Purpureocillium lilacinum - A bionematicide with great prospect

Purpureocillium lilacinum occurs naturally in the soil and rhizospheres of many crops, as well as nematodes and their eggs. P. lilacinum controls nematodes by invading and damaging their eggs. P. lilacinum forms an appressorium and secretes chitinase enzyme to degrade chitosan and penetrate nematode eggshell. Afterwards, its hyphae develop inside the egg and consume nutrients from the host. As a nematicide, it has a wide range of nematode hosts, such as root-knot, burrowing, cyst, root lesion, reniform and false root [14].

P. lilacinum has other advantages. It facilitates crop growth and improves the quality of the harvest. P. lilacinum is safe for humans and is exempt from maximum food residue level of China’s administration. It can grow at a wide range of temperatures (8–38°C) and pH [15-16]. Such microbe is considered as one of the most promising and practicable bionematicides.

Mitsui’s BIOSTAT WP, which contains P. lilacinum, is registered in Brazil. The product controls the nematodes, Meloidogyne incognita and Meloidogyne javanica. Nematodes are one of the most common pests in Brazil that affect numerous crops, such as cotton, potatoes, sugarcane, carrots, tobacco, cucumbers and soybeans. Due to its microbiological ingredient, the product can be used in any culture affected by these nematodes.

Microbes + other biologicals/chemicals, more sustainable solutions

One microbe applied with other microbial species or chemicals can increase the efficacy of formulations, decrease the use of chemical pesticides, and reduce microbial adopting limitation, due to its slow action and other factors.

FMC’s Provilar and ADAMA’s Protege are formulated with B. velezensis and other microbes to provide higher efficacy through the different modes of action of their active ingredients. They are compatible with other pesticides. FMC stated that Provilar increases control efficiency in association with chemicals.

Studies show two other examples with B. bassiana. When cotton is inoculated with B. bassiana and Purpureocillium lilacinum, the growth of the crop is promoted and the biomass is increased [17]. The combination of B. bassiana and spinetoram achieves higher efficacy in pest control compared to either ingredients that are used alone [18].

Another research shows that a synergistic effect existed between B. velezensis SDTB038 and fluopimomide. The combination of the two ingredients has the potential to decrease the use of the chemical, fluopimomide [19].

Developing integrated tools with mixtures of microbes and chemicals is a huge challenge, but the demand for such solutions is considerable, as they are the most suitable practices for today’s regeneration agriculture, considering that conventional farming is still the major power for food production. It is important to ensure that microbes are not affected by chemicals when they are mixed together, which is a difficult task for R&D. However, new ingredients are being discovered every day, and the improvement of formulation technologies will help provide growers with novel solutions for more sustainable crop production.

Table 1. Part of companies registered/launched fungal and bacterial pesticides in 2020-2023

This article was originally published in the magazine 2023 Biologicals Special.

References

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[5] Arkhipova, T. N., Prinsen, E., Veselov, S. U., Martinenko, E. V., Melentiev, A. I., and Kudoyarova, G. R. (2007) Cytokinin producing bacteria enhance plant growth in drying soil. Plant. Soil. 292, 305-315.

[6] Zhang, H., Kim, M.S., Krishnamachari, V., Payton, P., Sun, Y., Grimson, M., Farag, M. A., Ryu, C. M., Allen, R., Melo, I. S., and Paré, P. W. (2007) Rhizobacterial volatile emissions regulate auxin homeostasis and cell expansion in Arabidopsis. Planta. 226, 839-851.

[7] Molnár, I., Gibson, D. M., and Krasnoff, S. B. (2010). Secondary metabolites from entomopathogenic Hypocrealean fungi. Nat. Prod. Rep. 27, 1241–1275. doi: 10.1039/c001459c

[8] Rohlfs, M., and Churchill, A. C. (2011). Fungal secondary metabolites as modulators of interactions with insects and other arthropods. Fungal Genet. Biol. 48, 23–34. doi: 10.1016/j.fgb.2010.08.008

[9] Safavi, S. A. (2013). In vitro and in vivo induction, and characterization of Beauvericin Isolated from Beauveria bassiana and its bioassay on Galleria mellonella larvae. J. Agr. Sci. Technol. 15, 1–10.

[10] Xiao, G., Ying, S. H., Zheng, P., Wang, Z. L., Zhang, S., Xie, X. Q., et al. (2012). Genomic perspectives on the evolution of fungal entomopathogenicity in Beauveria bassiana. Sci. Rep. 2:483. doi: 10.1038/srep00483

[11] Ortiz-Urquiza, A., and Keyhani, N. O. (2013). Action on the Surface: entomopathogenic Fungi versus the Insect Cuticle. Insects 4, 357–374. doi: 10.3390/insects4030357

[12] Pedrini, N., Ortiz-Urquiza, A., Huarte-Bonnet, C., Zhang, S., and Keyhani, N. O. (2013). Targeting of insect epicuticular lipids by the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana: hydrocarbon oxidation within the context of a host-pathogen interaction. Front. Microbiol. 4:24. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2013.00024

[13] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-19899-7

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[17] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1049964415001073

[18] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9995398/

[19] https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PDIS-08-20-1666-RE