Fungi as Biocontrol Agents: Progress, Problems and Potential

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Plant Pathology (2002) 51, 518 – 521

Book reviews Blackwell Science, Ltd

Fungi as Biocontrol Agents: Progress, Problems and Potential. T. M. Butt, C. Jackson and N. Magan (eds) 17·5 × 25 cm, 390 pp. Wallingford UK: CABI. [http://www.cabi.org.uk], 2001. £75·00. ISBN 085199 356 7 (hardback).

The development of fungi as biocontrol agents is often limited by the same constraints whether the intended final use is for invertebrate pest control, weed control or disease control. Yet these specialist practitioners rarely get together to address their common problems and share their successes. This useful book of 14 chapters is the output of two International Symposia held at the University of Southampton, UK (1998) and the University of Wales, Swansea, UK (1999). The range of topics covered includes general chapters on insect control, plant disease control and weed control followed by several chapters on common issues. Chapter 3 ‘Use of Hyphomycetous Fungi for Managing Insect Pests’ by Inglis, Goettel, Butt and Strasser and Chapter 4 ‘Biology, Ecology and Pest Management Potential of Entomophthorales’ by Pell, Eilenberg, Hajek and Steinkraus, take up, with references, 130 pages; a third of the book. This may seem disproportionate but probably reflects the relatively greater input into insect biocontrol. The extensive reference lists in these and most other chapters are welcome too. The broadly relevant chapters include ‘Monitoring the Fate of Biocontrol Fungi’, ‘Toxic Metabolites of Fungal Biocontrol Agents’ as well as chapters on prospects for strain improvement by genetic manipulation, improving fitness by physiological approaches and the issue of safety. Some authors include previously unpublished research. Bateman and Chapple in Chapter 11, ‘The Spray Application of Mycopesticide Formulations’, provide a concise and helpful review of a subject that is crucial but frequently ignored by biologists. They point out, correctly, that ‘Failure to consider the numerical aspects of dose transfer of particles during application may be catastrophic during the testing of new microbial agents.’ In Chapter 10, ‘Production, Stabilization and Formulation of Fungal Biocontrol Agents’, Wraight, Jackson and de Kock review the field and include a case study of Jackson’s group’s 10 years research on Colletotrichum truncatum production. They describe how nutrition regulates spore production, yield and fitness and the development of a method for microsclerotia production. This demonstrates clearly the value and indeed the necessity to form teams of specialists to develop a potential biopesticide into a useful product. 518

Large multinational firms with the capacity to draw on a range of in-house specialists are not interested in biological control agents for limited markets. The impetus for the development of biocontrol agents and their use will come from a demand for ‘green’ agricultural products and safer methods of pest control. Government funded research, both national and international, will continue to provide potential biological agents. To do this more efficiently and to bring products to fruition, as this book clearly demonstrates, multidisciplinary teams with long planning horizons are required. Research leaders with vision and commitment are needed to form and maintain these teams. The editors and publishers have produced a timely, high quality, well-illustrated book, and, by recent standards, one which is good value. It should make a welcome and necessary addition to any applied biology or agriculture library. Bruce Auld

The Life of a Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an Experimental Model, 1930 – 65. Angela N. H. Creager. 15 × 22·5 cm 398 pp. Chicago, USA: University of Chicago Press 2002. £47·50 (Hardback), ISBN 0-226–12025-2; £16·00 (Paperback) ISBN 0-226–12026-0.

Some potential readers may find the structure of the book off-putting with numerous footnotes (1200 +) often taking up more than half the page, and 50 pages of references. If so, try to overcome first impressions, as it recounts a fascinating scientific story and has much resonance with how science is done and funded today. The genesis of, and links within, the work are Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and the career of Wendell M Stanley, who first ‘crystallised’ TMV, although as the ‘crystals’ were not really crystals and were of protein rather than nucleoprotein, a fact that Stanley later acknowledged, it begged the question put by one of his UK correspondents ‘of what he made originally’! Stanley’s results, even with the above reservations, gave a great boost to virus research and largely stemmed from his interactions with colleagues such as Louis Kunkel, the virologist and John Northrop the enzymologist. Stanley with Sumner and Northrop received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1946 ‘for their preparation of enzymes and virus proteins in a pure form’. Most of the main human players are now no longer with us but TMV still provides a source of valuable scientific study. The author develops the thesis of TMV as the model system, exemplar or benchmark of its day, for © 2002 BSPP

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work on other viruses, especially within the context of this book, Polio and Influenza, viruses with much greater public recognition than TMV, and shows how much of the knowledge that we now take for granted of viruses, and the role and interpretation of nucleic acid sequences, derives from the work done on TMV. For anyone working in this area, and for many who do not, the names of individuals, concepts and techniques are very familiar, but perhaps few know of the interactions between personalities, techniques, funding and politics that had so much influence; this book describes them. While the focus is on personalities and organisms, a subtext is how funding for research developed in the USA, and how instrumentation, especially techniques of ultracentrifugation was central to progress. The chapter titles, ‘Where Tobacco Mosaic has led us’; ‘Viruses enter the laboratory’; ‘Crystals at the “Threshold of Life” ’; ‘That Whirligig of Science; the ultracentrifuge in virus research’; ‘The war against Polio’; ‘Viruses and Genes’; ‘Taking TMV to pieces’; ‘TMV as an experimental model’, give an accurate reflection of the content and are informed by meticulous research and access to a range of archives. Also included are a number of significant archive photographs of people, places, and reports. How will historians of the future cope with building up a picture of how scientific concepts developed in an electronic environment where most communications can be deleted at the click of a mouse? As well as the science, and in some ways equally as fascinating and relevant today, are the other common currencies of any human endeavour, personality clashes, priority, funding and organisation. The book shows that progress is made both by conceptual leaps, the recognition of how techniques can be adapted and used, and by personal interactions, manifest both through temperament and training. There were conflicts over laboratory space; concerns about letting politicians have control over the selection of research topics and projects! It is also clear that Stanley was good at making his case to funding organisations and the scientific community. Stanley was ‘A master of exposition and knows how to defend his work’; ‘Stanley’s considerable rhetorical skills facilitated his easy shift in positions’ and he was a ‘good salesman’. All are qualities that would be of value to a scientist in the current climate. There is a need to put over science not just to do it. This is a history book written from a North American perspective and no doubt a different balance might have been reached by another writing from a European standpoint. However, as far as this reviewer can judge fair weight is given to the differing views and priorities, even if the footnotes often need to be read to establish them. All the illustrations are in black and white and the quality is as much a reflection of the original material as the quality of production. It is a fascinating account of a critical time in the development of biological science and well worth

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the modest cost, at least for the paperback copy available for review. R. T. Plumb

Plant Pathologist’s Pocketbook, Third edition. J.M. Waller, J.M. Lenné and S.J. Walker (eds). 15·5 × 23 cm, 528 pp. Wallingford, UK: CABI [http://www.cabi.org.uk], 2002. £30. ISBN 085199 459 8 (paperback).

I bought the first edition of Plant Pathologist’s Pocketbook in 1970. It was a hardback and being a student I found it was really useful. I skipped the second edition and now the third edition has landed on my desk. As the editorial assistant to Plant Pathology I was about to send this book out to a nominated reviewer when I found myself referring to it four times in an hour. It was suggested therefore that I might like to review it. The first edition had 273 pages, the second edition 447 and this edition 528 pages. As well as an increase in the number of pages, the new edition is 50% larger in page size, thus making it easier to hold and browse through, but less of a pocket-sized book as the authors concede in their preface. At first glance the structure is more ordered and the glossary, which could get lost in the previous editions, precedes the indexes (of which there are now two; a general index and a diseases and pathogens index) at the back. I think the present structure is better, making items easier to find. Some chapters have become larger, reflecting how the discipline has advanced, e.g. chapter 12 on ‘Phytoplasma Plant Pathogens’ and chapter 25 on ‘Epidemic Modelling and Disease Forecasting’. Chapters 22 and 23 on ‘Immunological Techniques’ and ‘Biochemical and Molecular Techniques’ reflect other major advances in plant pathology and were very informative. Now I know what all those acronyms I type out really mean. As one would expect there is a useful chapter (42) on ‘Electronic Databases and Information Technology in Plant Pathology’. Finally every author of a PhD thesis or manuscript for publication should read chapter 41 entitled ‘Publication’ particularly the ‘References’ section. It is my experience of two years in handling over 200 published manuscripts that too many authors seem to fade out when they reach the references when preparing a manuscript and subsequently omit some from either the text or reference list as well as formatting them incorrectly! This book itself, is not free of such symptoms. This is a well laid out, easy to use book invaluable to plant pathologists. Each chapter has a list of references/ recommended reading at its end as well as two Bibliography chapters. I can highly recommend it to all plant pathologists, students or otherwise both in the UK and overseas and it even makes good bedtime reading!! Jenny Shattock

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Book Reviews

Compendium of Potato Diseases, Second Edition. W.R. Stevenson, R. Loria, G.D. Franc and D.P. Weingartner (eds). 21·5 × 28 cm, 144 pp. St. Paul, USA: American Phytopathological Society Press [http://www.scisoc.org], 2001. US$49. ISBN 0 89054 275 9 (paperback).

The current range and number of plant science books, journals and multimedia products available from the American Phytopathological Society Press is certainly impressive. Almost 200 items are available and can be obtained from APS Headquarters in St. Paul, MN, 55121–2097, USA or the APS Press Europe Branch Office, Broekstraat 47, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium. The second edition of Compendium of Potato Diseases provides a 20 year update during which time some key pathogens and management practices have changed. The format complies with the Compendium Series design with Introduction; Infectious Pathogens; and Nutrient Imbalance and Physiological Disorders. At 144 pages it is the largest of the 35 strong series. Each disease or disorder is described with importance, distribution, symptoms, causal pathogen and life cycle and epidemiology (for diseases) followed by management practices and references. In most cases the latter include references from the last decade. This Compendium, like others in the series, provides useful basic information to potato growers and crop consultants as well as students, teachers and researchers alike. Potato – top of the crops? Thurston in his Introduction thinks so. ‘Although fourth largest after world staples wheat, maize and rice no other food can match potato for energy per unit area of land’ … and … ‘annual production world wide is twice that of all other edible root and tuber crops combined’. The entry on late blight by Cornellians, Fry and Thurston and editor Stevenson of University of Wisconsin, Madison is, of course, updated to embrace the significant structural changes in the population biology of Phytophthora infestans. Five colour plates of blight symptoms are part of the generally excellent 193 colour plates in the Compendium. These can be purchased separately in an indexed binder slide set for US$348. Embedded in the text on late blight are black and white illustrations of sporangia, emerging zoospores and germinating oospores. I was pleased to see the latter (I photographed them in 1984 in Bill Fry’s laboratory) orientated as ‘Phyto the Footballer’, the mascot of the Bangor Blighters over the past decade!! Richard Shattock

Westcott’s Plant Disease Handbook, Sixth Edition. Revised by R.K. Horst. 16 × 24 cm, 1028 pp. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers (www.kap.nl), 2001. £210. ISBN 07923 8663 9 (hardback).

This thousand-page handbook – for plant pathologists with big hands and deep pockets – starts with a short introduction on plant disease control, followed by two

principal sections: the main types of disease classified by symptom, from anthracnose to wilt, and an A–Z of plant genera with their most common diseases. There are no diagnostic keys, but the A–Z and a comprehensive index allow diseases to be tracked fairly easily. The emphasis is on practical disease management. There is plenty of advice on fungicides, but the selection exemplifies the problem with this book for European readers: it is an American book. Of the long list of products, some are no longer available even in the USA, and very few indeed are sold on the UK amateur market. The USA legal background to pesticide use is given very clearly, but things are different over here and the crucial constraint (at least for UK users) – that the target diseases and hosts are specified explicitly in the statutory part of the label – is not discussed. The book is written for gardeners, and reassuringly advises ‘Don’t let all the scientific names worry you’, but I think these names should have worried the editors a bit more, as errors are rather frequent. Neem, for example, is Azadirachta indica, not Melis (sic) azedarach. The updating has not been very consistent, various editions of the Dictionary of the Fungi (see Plant Pathology 51, 255) as far back as 1961 are cited. I checked Westcott’s entry for camellia petal blight, a disease of current interest in the UK. It is listed as Sclerotinia camelliae in the host A–Z, and appears under Sclerotinia in the Blights section, but as ‘Ciberinia (sic) camelliae (formerly Sclerotinia camelliae)’. The genus Ciborinia is listed separately under Blights, but it does not yet include C. camelliae. Perhaps it will get there by the next edition. I also checked Dutch Elm Disease, where Ophiostoma ulmi and O. novo-ulmi are both listed as pathogens. There is much detail on the introduction of O. ulmi from Europe in infested elm wood and the devastation it caused in the USA, but there is no other mention of O. novo-ulmi, the cause of the current epidemic in the USA and Europe, which arrived in the UK in infested North American elm wood! A proposed control strategy for DED mentions insecticide spraying during the dormant season, something never seriously countenanced in the UK. Environmental problems with massive DDT spraying are noted, but no substitute is suggested. There are line drawings of symptoms and also fungal microstructure, although the latter are microscopic characters inaccessible to most gardeners. The many black and white photographs are more useful, and there are also eight colour plates. The illustrations are often nowhere near the text that they illustrate, and the crossreferencing is from text to picture, but not vice versa. If I worked as a plant diagnostician in the USA, I should expect my employer to buy this book. Despite the rather erratic updating it is undoubtedly a uniquely useful resource. It is not a book for amateur gardeners, but it would be very useful for professional horticulturalists and also extension workers, who are almost extinct in UK but still survive in North America. If you are a keen UK gardener, Buczacki S & Harris K 1998. Collins Photoguide to Pests, Diseases and Disorders of Garden Plants. London, UK: HarperCollins, will serve your needs better, with pests and © 2002 BSPP Plant Pathology (2002) 51, 518– 521

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disorders thrown in for good measure and leaving you about £190 richer. Those working in the professional sector will buy Alford DV (ed.) 2000. Pest and Disease Management Handbook. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science, for the same reasons, and also be much better off. A few European diagnosticians and plant health professionals

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will probably want Westcott as a source of information on North American plant diseases, but the price is ludicrous. I would make the purchase of the excellent American Phytopathological Society’s compendia (www.scisoc.org) a higher priority. Chris Prior