Screening of micro-organisms for Venturia inaequalis control by means of DGGE

Summary

Venturia inaequalis causes apple scab. The control of the disease in organic apple production depends on the use of copper which will be restricted in future for environmental reasons.
In the search for environmental friendly microbial biocontrol agents and stimulation of antagonistic populations in situ the molecular technique of DGGE fingerprinting can is applied. This fingerprinting technique allows to bypass culturing techniques and even can identify not yet culturable organisms.
Comparison of microbial fingerprints and pathogen development in the leaf samples during winter and spring has been performed to identify populations with antagonistic potential. Such potential antagonistic organisms can be further identified by their specific DNA sequence. Preliminary results identify possible antagonists. The identification based on the sequence can help to focus on specific isolation or stimulation of a possible antagonist or a consortium of antagonists.