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10-Minute Presentation

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

10-min: P-IE, Host Plant Resistance

A Methylorubrum extorquens product, TS201, uses induced systemic resistance and plant volatile emissions to control corn rootworm

Tuesday, November 11, 2025
4:00 PM - 4:12 PM Pacific
Location: Oregon Convention Center, E141-142, OCC
Oral Presentation
Plant beneficial microbes play an important role in plant health and defense. TS201, an EPA-registered biopesticial product made from a naturally occurring Methylorubrum extorquens isolate, helps the plant defend itself from corn rootworm (CRW) and maintain yield. CRW is a sporadic, hard to control pest that causes an estimated $2 billion in economic damage per year. TS201 triggers priming of the plant’s defense system through Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR) to provide protection only when the pest is present. Using transcriptomics, metabolomics, and insect behavioral assays, TS201 has been confirmed to cause the plant to produce a volatile compound that repels CRW larvae from feeding. When paired with a Methylobacterium gregans biostimulant product, Terrasym 450, the combination provides a yield advantage regardless of CRW pressure under a wide variety of environmental conditions and in addition to other IPM strategies to control this pest. Additionally, the ISR mode of action has been shown to be active against many other pests/pathogens in a variety of plants; consequently, testing of TS201 is allowing for the expansion of the label to other pests and crops. Another EPA-registered biopesticide made from a Methylorubrum populi isolate, TS601, also uses ISR as a mode of action and will launch in 2026 as a biofungicide for multiple pathosystems.