In the course of developing for new antifungal agents to control plant diseases, we discovered that vulculic acid isolated from the culture broth of marine fungus Paraboeremia adianticola SFC20150402-M42 exhibits a promising activity to control rice b...
In the course of developing for new antifungal agents to control plant diseases, we discovered that vulculic acid isolated from the culture broth of marine fungus Paraboeremia adianticola SFC20150402-M42 exhibits a promising activity to control rice blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae. Through in vitro antifungal assay against various plant pathogenic fungi, vulculic acid revealed as a highly selective antifungal compound against M. oryzae. The inhibitory effect of vulculic acid on spore germination and mycelial growth of M. oryzae were investigated using broth microdilution and agar dilution methods. While the spore germination of M. oryzae was completely inhibited by treatment of vulculic acid (6 μg/ml), mycelial growth of M. oryzae was reduced by only 21% at the concentration of 200 μg/ml, compared with that in non-treated controls. The biochemical and molecular biological works on the inhibitory mechanism of vulculic acid in the process of spore germination of M. oryzae are in progress. Taken together, these results indicated that vulculic acid could be used as a selective fungicide for rice blast disease control or serving as a lead compound for new fungicides.