Animals, birds, soil fauna, and insects can consume and injure the sclerotia. Numerous antagonistic and mycoparasitic fungi and bacteria are also present and frequently isolated from parasitised sclerotia. They are Coniothyrium minitans, Trichoderma spp. Although G. virens shows the potential to infect sclerotia of Sclerotinia and Sclerotium spp. Growing the fungus in the plant debris and reintroducing it into the soil could conceivably hasten the destruction of sclerotia in the field.
Little information is available about the effect of bacteria on the survival of sclerotia.
However, damaged sclerotia appear more susceptible to bacterial invasion. Bacteria are consistently found in rotted sclerotia as in many other saprophytic fungi. Thus, many bacteria, such as P. fluorescence, P. putida, and B. subtilis , may have a direct or indirect impact on the survival of the sclerotia, particularly those which produce antibiotics. More research in this area is needed. Literature Cited Abawi, G. S. and R. G. Grogan.