EcoScience Corp. announced Friday that it has received$105,000 from the state of Minnesota for research ondeveloping a biological control agent for the aquatic weedEurasian watermilfoil.

Scientists at the Worcester, Mass., company (NASDAQ:ECSC)have identified a naturally occurring fungus that has asymbiotic relationship with milfoil, one of the most problematicaquatic weeds in North America. If they concentrate thisfungus, encapsulate it in small beads and disperse those beadsonto the plant, the fungi then proceed to kill the milfoil, said acompany representative.

The goal of the Minnesota-funded research is to identifyadditional strains of the naturally occurring fungus that will actacross broader temperature ranges and that are moreaggressive than current isolates.

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