A NOVEL BIOBASED APPROACH FOR MANAGING ROOT ROT IN SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY

The overarching goal of this project is to develop a biobased approachto combat the increasing problem of Rhizoctonia Crown and Root Rot (RCCR) in the sugar beet industry. RCCR is caused by a fungal pathogen,Rhizoctonia solanitogether with a bacterial pathogen,Leuconostoc mesenteroides.The pathogens infect the crop in the field and then degrade it and its sugar during storage. Additionally,L. mesenteroides produces dextran during sucrose fermentation, which plugs the factory filters leading to a severe drop in processing efficiency. As a result, a huge amount of energy that goes into growing the crop is wasted, andsugar beet growers lose several milliondollars worth of profits every year.Mycologics' innovative approach hinges on a naturally-derived antimicrobial formulation that can be applied as a spray and seamlessly integrated with the existing pre- and postharvest treatment protocols.The specific goal of this phase I project is to establish the technical feasibility of the formulation to combat RCCR in the sugar beet crop and lead to the commercialization of the proposed approach. Two technical objectives that will be addressedin this project are as follows:Objective 1: The dose of the formulation that can lead to >95% growth inhibition ofpure cultures of R. solaniand L. mesenteroides will be determined.Simultaneously, the bioactive components comprising the formulation will also be determined.Objective 2: The dose of the formulation that best preventsR. solaniandL. mesenteroidesinfections in artificially infected sugar beets and sugar beet extracts will be then determined. The doses selected for this studywill be based on the dose that causes >95% reduction ofR. solaniandL. mesenteroideswhen grown as pure cultures under objective 1.