VIEW ARTICLE

Letter to the Editor

Dose-Response Relationships and Inundative Biological Control. Kenneth B. Johnson. Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331-2902. Phytopathology 84:780-784. Accepted for publication 25 May 1994. Copyright 1994 The American Phytopathological Society. doi:10.1094/Phyto-84-780.

Biological control of plant disease is currently receiving increased research effort owing to the desire to enhance the sustainability of agricultural production systems and to reduce the use of chemical pesticides in these systems. Much of the current research on biological control is focused on understanding the mechanisms by which biological agents reduce the impact of pathogen populations (e.g., antibiosis [6,22], competition [6,16,20], hyperparasitism [6], and induced resistance [6,17]). Development of a theory defining epidemiological parameters that may govern the efficacy of biological control of plant disease has received less research effort (1,5). This is particularly true for systems in which biological control agents are introduced inundatively (i.e., artificially in high concentration) to soil or phyllosphere environments.