Mycosubtilin and surfactin are efficient, low ecotoxicity molecules for the biocontrol of lettuce downy mildew.

The use of surfactin and mycosubtilin as an eco-friendly alternative to control lettuce downy mildew caused by the obligate pathogen Bremia lactucae was investigated. Preliminary ecotoxicity evaluations obtained from three different tests revealed the rather low toxicity of these lipopeptides separately or in combination. The EC50 (concentration estimated to cause a 50 % response by the exposed test organisms) was about 100 mg L(-1) in Microtox assays and 6 mg L(-1) in Daphnia magna immobilization tests for mycosubtilin and 125 mg L(-1) and 25 mg L(-1) for surfactin, respectively. The toxicity of the mixture mycosubtilin/surfactin (1:1, w/w) was close to that obtained with mycosubtilin alone. In addition, the very low phytotoxic effect of these lipopeptides has been observed on germination and root growth of garden cress Lepidium sativum L. While a surfactin treatment did not influence the development of B. lactucae on lettuce plantlets, treatment with 100 mg L(-1) of mycosubtilin produced about seven times more healthy plantlets than the control samples, indicating that mycosubtilin strongly reduced the development of B. lactucae. The mixture mycosubtilin/surfactin (50:50 mg L(-1)) gave the same result on B. lactucae development as 100 mg L(-1) of mycosubtilin. The results of ecotoxicity as well as those obtained in biocontrol experiments indicated that the presence of surfactin enhances the biological activities of mycosubtilin. Mycosubtilin and surfactin were thus found to be efficient compounds against lettuce downy mildew, with low toxicity compared to the toxicity values of chemical pesticides. This is the first time that Bacillus lipopeptides have been tested in vivo against an obligate pathogen and that ecotoxic values have been given for surfactin and mycosubtilin.