Pathogens that can kill weeds....
This is a picture of the researcher Alice Pilgeram
If you have any questions about this topic you can e-mail her at UPLAP@montana.edu
How to:   One way to kill weeds is by using herbicides.  However, another way is to infect the plant with a disease.  For instance, there is a bacteria that will kill hounds tongue, Canadian thistle, knapweed, etc..  This bacteria won't kill or hurt any animals.
   Alice Pilgeram started her research in 1984.  S. Sclerotiorious is a fungus that kills Canadian thistle, but it won't effect humans or animals.  This fungus is very effective and will kill 361 species of plants which is to many to make it a specific weed killer.  However, it will also kill most weeds.
    To make the fungus kill only the weed and not other non weedy plants, you engineer the fungus so that it needs to feed on a chemical called PYR to survive and work.  If you don't feed it the PYR, the fungus won't do anything.  You feed the fungus on the weed infested area only and the fungus will grow and kill the weed.
    If you don't feed it, then you still have a healthy plants because the fungus won't have any food to grow and get rid of the plant.
   Another way is to isolate a pathogen  (a disease) of a plant then genetically engineered it to kill only that species of plant.  At this time however, it will only kill about 50% of what it is put on.

Anoculating