Are soils suppressive to fungal diseases the sources of biocontrol agents ?

Soils suppressive to soil-borne diseases are defined by a low disease incidence in spite of the presence of a virulent pathogen and a susceptible plant. In many cases, the inhibition of the disease development relies on the activity of the resident soil microbiome. Suppressiveness can be transmitted to conducive soil by mixing a small amount of suppressive soil into the conducive one. To identify microbial taxons linked to the suppressive phenotype of soils, culture independent-based methods have been employed to analyze and compare microbial diversities in two different soils suppressive (respectively conducive) to either Fusarium wilt of flax or Rhizoctonia diseases of sugar beet. Metagen…