Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a yeast with potential to control plant diseases by producing antibiotic compounds. It has shown, a great ability to compete at phyloplane for space and nutrients and by having elicitors in the cell walls. The present study was carried out to evaluate the productivity of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) plants treated with the yeast and control of sorghum leaf diseases caused by Colletotrichum sublineolum and Exserohilum turcicum. The trials were conducted in the field, in a randomized block design, with seven treatments and four replicates. Weekly sprayings with commercial baker's yeast (Fermento Biológico Fleischmann - 25 mg/ml) significantly reduced the anthracnose on sorghum Tx-398B cultivar and improved its production. On the other hand, for the 910753 cultivar, a single yeast application was enough to reduce leaf spot progress, although production was not increased by any of the treatments. Thus, S. cerevisiae was able to control sorghum leaf diseases in the field, either improving or maintaining productivity, depending upon the cultivar used.
anthracnose; leaf spot; biological control; resistance
