Soilborne plant pathogens are a major cause of crop loss causing significant economic damages. Changes in regulations and restrictions on the use of agro chemicals, in addition to public awareness for health and environment issues related to agro chemicals raise the need for the development of more sustainable ways to control plant pathogens. We are investigating the capacity of soil bacteria and their metabolites to antagonize prominent soilborne pathogens using the fungal and oomycete pathogens Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizoctonia solani and Pythium aphanidermatum as models. We are especially interested in bacterial secondary metabolites (i.e. non-ribosomal peptides and polyketides) and have developed a myriad of genomic, cultivation based and cultivation independent methods to discover novel metabolites with antifungal activity.