Therefore, the use of biopesticides to control pests is now preferred over synthetic pesticides because of their pest control ability and diverse mode of actions which helps in avoiding resistance development in the pests.
Another major issue is the development of resistance in the pests. Though the chemical pesticides are very effective, what concerns over their use is their effect on soil and environment and presence of residue in food products. So, the farmers have relied heavily on the use of chemical pesticides to improve their crop production, which is now paying a huge toll on the human health and environment. The postharvest losses and quality decline caused by storage pests are major problems in a subtropical country like India. The average reduction in global crop loss due to use of pesticides is around ∼39%. For over a century, chemical control of pests is a common practice in agriculture. These enzymes are found exclusively in Chryseobacterium nematophagum and significantly the substrates for these enzymes do not exist in prokaryotes indicating they are used to infect the nematode host. By comparing the genomes of Chryseobacterium nematophagum to numerous environmental Chryseobacterium species, we identified genes that encode collagenase and chitinase enzymes that are predicted to be involved in this unusual digestion process. This fast killing process involves the digestion of the tough pharyngeal structures that include the chitinous and collagenous lining. The ubiquity of nematodes in nature is partly down to the fact that they are encased in this normally highly resistant collagenous cuticle. Once ingested the bacteria begin their invasion process, which involves the digestion of the nematode’s anterior pharynx (right), entry and multiplication within the body cavity, and ultimately the digestion of the host from the inside out – leaving just cuticle exoskeleton, but even this resilient structure is ultimately digested. Unusually, the nematodes are actually attracted to and actively eat these bacteria. We found that the bacteria kill worms rapidly at a very low dose: within 24 hours when diluted as part of a bacterial food-source, or in just a few hours when given as a pure culture. nematophagum we characterized is unusual in many respects most importantly it is extremely virulent towards a wide range of nematodes that parasitize animals – including the important Strongyle and Trichostrongyle species. Chryseobacterium nematophagum is a formidable pathogen of nematodes nematophagum could be a new weapon in the fight against pervasive animal nematode parasites. We characterized how it infects and kills its parasitic worm hosts, and, similar to other natural pathogens, we suggest that C. In our recent study in BMC Biology, we described one such bacterial pathogen, the “golden Death bacillus” Chryseobacterium nematophagum, which we found in a rotten apple in Paris and also from a rotten fig in Bangalore. This has proved a rich hunting ground for researchers to identify naturally occurring pathogens, including fungi microsporidia, bacteria, oomycetes and viruses ( 1, 2). For example, C.elegans, can be found in microbe-rich environments associated with rotten plants and fruits. One approach to try and understand nematode biology is to look to the diversity of wild isolates found across the world.