Patent

1. A composition comprising a biologically pure culture of a fungicidal Paenibacillus sp. strain comprising a variant fusaricidin synthetase lacking a functional adenylation domain in the third module (FusA-A3) or a cell-free extract thereof,

wherein the lack of a functional FusA-A3 inhibits synthesis of fusaricidins with a tyrosine or a phenylalanine at amino acid residue (3) compared to synthesis of fusaricidins by a Paenibacillus sp. strain comprising a wild-type fusaricidin synthetase; and

wherein the variant fusaricidin synthetase comprises a deletion in FusA-A3 of amino acid residues that correspond to positions Asp254, Ala255, Ser258, Thr297, Leu318, Ala320, Gly341, Val349 and Cys350 of SEQ ID NO: 1 or Asp254, Ala255, Ser258, Thr297, Leu318, Ala320, Ala341, Val349 and Cys350 of SEQ ID NO: 9.

2. The composition of claim 1 , comprising a cell-free extract of the biologically pure culture of the fungicidal Paenibacillus sp. strain.

3. The composition of claim 2 , further comprising at least one Paeniserine and at least one Paeniprolixin.

4. The composition of claim 3 , wherein the at least one Paeniserine is selected from the group consisting of Paeniserine A1, Paeniserine A2, Paeniserine A3, Paeniserine A4, Paeniserine B1, Paeniserine B2, Paeniserine B3, Paeniserine B4, Paeniserine C1, Paeniserine C2, and Paeniserine C3.

5. The composition of claim 3 , wherein the at least one Paeniprolixin is selected from the group consisting of Paeniprolixin A1, Paeniprolixin A2, Paeniprolixin B Paeniprolixin B2, Paeniprolixin C1, Paeniprolixin D1, Paeniprolixin E1, Paeniprolixin E2, Paeniprolixin F1, Paeniprolixin F2, Paeniprolixin G1, and Paeniprolixin G2.

6. The composition of claim 1 comprising a fermentation product of the biologically pure culture of the fungicidal Paenibacillus sp. strain.

7. The composition of claim 6 , wherein the fermentation product is a solid formulation.

8. The composition of claim 6 , wherein the fermentation product is a liquid formulation.

9. The composition of claim 8 comprising at least about 1×10 4 CFU of the strain/mL of the liquid formulation.

10. A method of treating a plant to control a disease, wherein the method comprises applying an effective amount of the composition of claim 1 to the plant, to a part of the plant and/or to a locus of the plant.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the composition further comprises at least one Paeniserine and at least one Paeniprolixin.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the method comprises applying the composition to foliar plant parts.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the composition is applied at about 1×10 10 to about 1×10 12 colony forming units (CFU) of the fungicidal Paenibacillus sp. strain per hectare.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the composition is applied at about 0.5 kg to about 5 kg fermentation solids per hectare.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the plant disease is caused by a fungus.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the plant disease is mildew or a rust disease.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the mildew is powdery mildew or downy mildew.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the rust disease is selected from the group consisting of wheat leaf rust, leaf rust of barley, leaf rust of rye, brown leaf rust, crown rust, and stem rust.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the fungus is selected from the group consisting of Alternaria alternata, Alternaria solani, Botrytis cinerea, Colletotrichum lagenarium, Fusarium culmorum, Phaeosphaeria nodorum, Zymoseptoria tritici, Phytophthora cryptogea, Phytophthora infestans, Pythium ultimum, Magnaporthe oryzae, Thanatephorus cucumeris, Ustilago segetum var. avenae, Uromyces appendiculatus , and Puccinia triticina.