Can the grey mould disease of the grape-vine be controlled by yeast?

Butrytis cinerea has been found to be highly pathogenic to 'Chardonnay' and 'Pinot noir' cultivars of the grape-vine producing the characteristic grey mould symptoms within 7 days of inoculation to the vitro-plants. The yeast Pichia anomala (strain FY-102), isolated from apple skin, was found to be antagonistic to B. cinerea as it completely inhibited the appearance of the grey mould symptoms when groan together. The yeast was responsible for mor phological changes such as coagulation and leakage of the cytoplasm of B. c inerea. The pathogen, when applied together with P. anomala, failed to brin g about the grey mould symptoms on the grape-vine, suggesting that the yeas t could control the expression of this disease. An account of the interacti on between B. cinerea and P. anomala, as well as the sequences of the compl ete ITS region of the ribosomal DNA of the yeast are described here. (C) 20 00 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.