Mirian Pimentel in the Field (IMAGE) American Phytopathological Society Caption Recently, Mirian Pimentel, a PhD student, and a group of plant pathologists at Southern Illinois University, discovered a promising new tool to fight sudden death syndrome (SDS). They observed that several biological control agents (BCA), or beneficial fungi, were able to substantially reduce the growth of the causal pathogen agent of SDS. In some cases, these agents even overgrew the pathogen, parasitized it, and displayed evidence of "feeding" on it. Credit Ahmad M. Fakhoury Usage Restrictions None License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.