Springer How Research Can Stimulate the Development of Commercial Biological Control Against Plant Diseases: 21 (Progress in Biological Control, 21)

Biological control has become an attractive alternative strategy for the control of plant diseases to reduce the excessive use of agrochemicals and its health hazards. But a significant gap still exists between basic research involving the discovery of a biocontrol agent and its development and implementation under commercial conditions. Because BCAs (unlike chemical a.m.) need to establish, colonize, survive and perform their metabolic activity to control diseases. In order to move a biocontrol agent from the laboratory to the market place requires many different disciplines and people with a variety of expertise. Research can stimulate the development of commercial biocontrol agents.Chapter 16 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com. From the Back Cover Biological control has become an attractive alternative strategy for the control of plant diseases to reduce the excessive use of agrochemicals and its health hazards. But a significant gap still exists between basic research involving the discovery of a biocontrol agent and its development and implementation under commercial conditions. Because BCAs (unlike chemical a.m.) need to establish, colonize, survive and perform their metabolic activity to control diseases. In order to move a biocontrol agent from the laboratory to the market place requires many different disciplines and people with a variety of expertise. Research can stimulate the development of commercial biocontrol agents. Chapter 16 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com. About the Author Prof. Antonieta De Cal Responsible of Fungal Plant Pathogen Unit, Plant Protection Department, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA). Carretera de La Coruña km 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain. Email: cal@inia.es Prof. De Cal completed her BSc Hons (Science) and Master Agricultural Engineering, College of Agriculture, Polytechnic University of Madrid (1979-1984), and her PhD Plant Pathology in 1989 (Polytechnic University of Madrid). In 1991, she was staff scientific researcher focused on plant pathology objectives, where epidemiology and biological control of diseases were her main topics with the management of budgets and human resources. In 2013 she was Head of Plant Protection Department which has a main objective of protecting crops from microbial pathogens. Prof. De Cal is practically responsible for the Fungal Plant Pathogen Unit where the etiology, epidemiology and control of diseases caused by phytopathogenic fungi of fruit and vegetables are investigated. Her focus in biocontrol is on resilience and production/formulation of microorganisms for disease control and the study of environmental effects on the ecosystem; the study of the tritrophic agent interactions of biocontrol-host-pathogen through the use of -omics tools and fluorescence and confocal microscopy; and the development of alternative methods (integration of natural substances - biocontrol agents) for the sustainable control of diseases. She has published widely in these research areas with 85+ peer-reviewed Journal papers, written 40+ Book Chapters and edited a book about Biological Control of Plant Diseases (2017) PHYTOMA-ESPAÑA SL. 249 pp. Paloma Melgarejo received a degree in Agricultural Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and a PhD in Plant Pathology at the same university. Currently she is Research Professor at the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fish, and is working at INRAE (Paris, France) as Scientific Officer in the Executive Secretariat of the “Initiative 4p1000 Soils for Food Security and Climate”. Previously, Paloma Melgarejo has been Deputy Director of Prospective and Program Coordination of INIA (Spain) as project owner of the National Agricultural Research program (RTA) from 2008