Bacteriophage Usage for Bacterial Disease Management and Diagnosis in Plants

Abstract

In nature, plants are always under the threat of pests and diseases. Pathogenic bacteria are one of the major pathogen types to cause diseases in diverse plants, resulting in negative effects on plant growth and crop yield. Chemical bactericides and antibiotics have been used as major approaches for controlling bacterial plant diseases in the field or greenhouse. However, the appearance of resistant bacteria to common antibiotics and bactericides as well as their potential negative effects on environment and human health demands bacteriologists to develop alternative control agents. Bacteriophages, the viruses that can infect and kill only target bacteria very specifically, have been demonstrated as potential agents, which may have no negative effects on environment and human health. Many bacteriophages have been isolated against diverse plantpathogenic bacteria, and many studies have shown to efficiently manage the disease development in both controlled and open conditions such as greenhouse and field. Moreover, the specificity of bacteriophages to certain bacterial species has been applied to develop detection tools for the diagnosis of plant-pathogenic bacteria. In this paper, we summarize the promising results from greenhouse or field experiments with bacteriophages to manage diseases caused by plant-pathogenic bacteria. In addition, we summarize the usage of bacteriophages for the specific detection of plant-pathogenic bacteria.

Biocontrol of Soft Rot Caused by Pectobacterium odoriferum with Bacteriophage phiPccP-1 in Kimchi Cabbage

“…Bacteria develop various mechanisms to overcome the bacteriophage infection [ 31 ]. Therefore, the development of bacteriophage-insensitive mutants is a considerable factor for biocontrol with bacteriophages.…”

“…In recent years, bacteriophages specifically infecting and killing bacteria have emerged as a promising approach for control of bacterial plant diseases [ 31 ]. Several bacteriophages to potentially control soft-rot disease caused by P. carotovorum in several important plants have been reported, such as My1 [ 32 ], PP1 [ 33 ], PM2 [ 34 ], PPWS1 [ 35 ], PP2 [ 36 ], PP16 [ 37 ], and POP72 [ 38 ].…”

The Age of Phage: Friend or Foe in the New Dawn of Therapeutic and Biocontrol Applications?

“…Additionally, phage cocktails have been employed against Ralstonia solanacearum in bananas [227]. Several recent reviews have covered advancements and future prospective of using bacteriophages for the management of bacterial plant diseases [221,[228][229][230][231]. In addition, the feasibility of bacteriophages to be used in aquaculture settings continues to be increasingly investigated, in both prophylactic and therapeutic approaches [232][233][234].…”

Biocontrol potential of bacteriophage ɸsp1 against bacterial wilt-causing Ralstonia solanacearum in Solanaceae crops

“…The data also indicated that the phages are host specific for R. solanacearum and can be useful for diagnosis purpose using phage typing. Due to specificity against targeted host, bacteriophages can be used as diagnostic tools for plant pathogenic bacterial species (Vu and Oh 2020).…”