Bacteriophages to control plant diseases

Description

Crop yield loss due to bacterial plant pathogens need to be reduced to increase global food production demand. Currently available disease management strategies involving copper-based bactericides and antibiotics are losing efficacy due to development of resistance in bacteria. There is long familiar demand of environmentally friendly and sustainable strategies to control bacterial diseases. Bacteriophages are virus that kill target bacteria without affecting another microorganism and environment. Bacteriophage efficiency on phyllosphere is mainly affected by ultraviolet (UV) light. Use of combination of phage, mixture with phage carrier bacteria and optimizing time of application helps in persistence of bacteriophage. There are several bacteriophage products already available in the market to control destructive bacterial diseases. Unlike chemical based traditional control measure, bacteriophage mixture can be easily amended to reduce resistance development in bacteria. In this chapter, the authors discuss from phage isolation to interaction with bacteria and control mechanism of plant diseases.

Table of contents

1 Introduction 2 Advantages of bacteriophages for biocontrol over other strategies 3 Early research on bacteriophages 4 Sources of bacteriophages 5 Bacteriophage–host interactions 6 Concerns in using bacteriophages as biocontrol agents 7 Factors affecting the efficacy of bacteriophages for plant disease control 8 Approaches for optimum efficacy of bacteriophage for plant disease control 9 Bacteriophage therapy challenges that need to be addressed 10 Conclusions 11 Where to look for further information 12 References