On March 9-10, 2023, the Institute of Biological Control hosted the working group 'Biological Control of Plant Diseases‘ of the German Society for Plant Protection and Plant Health (DPG) for its annual meeting.

More than 60 representatives from science and industry got together to discuss current research results, developments and the approval of microorganisms and natural products as sustainable alternatives to chemical-synthetic plant protection products. There were different contributions on the use and modes of action of bacterial and fungal antagonists, applied individually or in association - in so-called consortia - against pathogens on various crops. Further studies on the influence of beneficial microorganisms on the composition of microbial communities in the soil and in the plant, the so-called microbiome, were presented. In addition, possible applications of plant extracts, e.g. licorice extract against various plant diseases, were discussed. Particular interest attracted the workshop of Christina Donat (company e-nema) in which the legal basis and associated challenges in the approval of microbial plant protection products were explained.

At the end of the meeting, the chairpersons were rotated and Dr. Ada Linkies from our institute and Dr. Christina Donat (e-nema) were elected as chair and deputy, respectively. They replace the previous chair Prof. Anant Patel (FH Bielefeld) and his deputy Elisa Beitzen-Heineke (Biocare GmbH). The next working group will take place in March 2024 at the Fraunhofer Institute in Giessen.