Herbivorous insects can cause significant damages in agriculture resulting in reduced crop yields quality and profit for most of the crops worldwide. The largest insecticide markets are fruit and vegetable cotton rice and corn. The worldwide market for chemicals for plant protection is worth than US$ 30 Mrd. including insecticides herbicides and fungicides. But chemicals can have a negative ecological impact interfering with beneficial organisms polluting the environment and even be a health risk for humanity through the food chain. Thus biological alternatives are looked for. Scientists of the University of Göttingen developed a new endophytic fungal isolate of Beauveria bassiana for plant protection against herbivorous insects. The isolate growths endophytically in several relevant crop plants and shows an excellent effectivity protecting them against the attack of insect pests. Its high virulence and high persistance makes him an ideal candidate for a chemical-free crop protection thus avoiding their negative ecological impact. We studied different innoculation methods and its virulence (mortality (%) mycosis (%) and survival time) in several crops like faba beans and rapeseed oil infected with the cotton or corn bollworm.
1) New proprietary fungal isolate to be used as biocontrol agent in crops. 2) Endophytic growth in the plant thus with long persistance. 3) Fast colonization of the whole plant even protecting not directly treated parts. 4) Reduce herbivore plant damage. 5) Very high degree of efficiency. 6) Highest virulence compared to other known Beauveria isolates. 7) Good plant tolerance. 8) Low ecological impact. 9) No toxins found in treated plants. 10) Applicable with usual methods of treatment (spraying seed coating).