Abstract:Barnyard grass, Echinochloa crus-galli, is one of the notorious weeds worldwide. To explore the potential of Alternaria augustiovoidea strain AAEC05-3 as mycoherbicide to control barnyard grass, the effect of inoculum potential and spray volume on the pathogenicity of strain AAEC05-3 to barnyard grass and host specificity of strain were studied using pot experiment. The inoculum potential and spray volume significantly affected the pathogenic efficiency. When the barnyard grass was inoculated with 1×106 spore/mL, the strain inhibited the growth of barnyard grass at 85.32%. At the spray volume up to 150mL/m2, the inhibition of strain against growth of barnyard grass arrived at 91.84%. At spray volumes over 150mL/m2, the inhibition of strain AAEC05-3 to growth of barnyard grass show a decreasing utility. The strain did not infect rice, soybean, sunflower and mung bean,then wheat, maize and yellow corn were susceptible to the strain. The strain has the characteristic of host selective-specificity. One herbicide activity compound was isolated from the crude toxin by column chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The compound has an ultraviolet absorbent peak at 243nm and 281.5nm. The phytotoxin could be isolated by using C18 column and gradient elution of methanol/H2O (60∶ 40). The phytotoxin could completely inhibit seed germination of barnyard grass at concentration of 100mg/L. At concentration of 100mg/L, the growth of barnyard grass was strongly inhibited by the phytotoxin and the inhibition achieved at 76%. It was indicated that the strain AAEC05-3 could be used as potential mycoherbicide against barnyard grass.