Symbiosis Control

Welcome to the Symbiotic Control Website

This website contains descriptions of projects aimed at control of animal and plant diseases caused by pathogens that are transmitted by insects. Symbiotic control implies the use of symbiotic organisms (microbes) to provide anti-disease strategies and includes the use of symbionts to control pest populations. Modern methods allow development of genetically altered symbionts for these various purposes, but non-transgenic strategies are also applicable.

Symbiotic control is necessarily an interdisciplinary subject. Methods and protocols from many different fields are needed including molecular biology, microbiology, plant pathology, virology, entomology and immunology to name a few. It is common for symbiotic control projects to have representatives of these separate fields of study.

The various active projects and laboratories will be described on the left panel. Readers are encouraged to contact the sites described there for further information and/or collaboration. By their nature, symbiotic control projects are generated by economic need. If plant diseases cause crop loss or animal and human diseases cause debilitation and, therefore, economic loss, remedial methods are called for. Symbiotic control is the newest of these.

The notes of the organizational meeting at which this website was proposed are accessible at the Purpose & Origin tab at the top of the Home Page.