Biological Control as a Tool for Eco-friendly Management of Plant Pathogens

Abstract

Crop protection is pivotal to maintain abundant production of high quality. Over the past 100 years, use of chemical fertilizers and pathocides and good agronomical practices enabled growers to maintain improved crop productivity. However, extensive use of chemicals during the last few decades in controlling pests and diseases resulted in negative impacts on the environment, producing inferior quality and harming consumer health. In recent times, diverse approaches are being used to manage and/or mitigate a variety of pathogens for control of plant diseases. Biological control is the alternative approach for disease management that is eco-friendly and reduces the amount of human contact with harmful chemicals and their residues. A variety of biocontrol agents including fungi and bacteria have been identified but require effective adoption and further development of such agents. This requires a better understanding of the intricate interactions among the pathogen, plants and environment towards sustainable agriculture. Beyond the field assessment, the analysis of microbial communities with culture-independent molecular techniques including sequencing technologies and genomics information has begun a new era of plant disease management. Keywords Biocontrol agent • Plant-pathogen interaction • Eco-friendly plant disease management • Sustainable agriculture • Socioeconomic impact 8.1 Introduction During the last 40 years, the world population has increased by 90%, while food production has increased only by 25% per head. It is estimated that 39% more production is needed worldwide to feed an additional 1.5 billion mouths by 2020

Exploring the Genetic Cipher of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Through Identification and Multi-environment Validation of Resistant Sources Against Fusarium Wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris)

“…The disease is more predominant in the Indian subcontinent, Spain, Ethiopia, Mexico, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United States (Westerlund et al, 1974;Halila and Strange, 1996;Ghosh et al, 2013). Since the disease is soil borne, chemical control is not effective and practical to implement (Sharma et al, 2017). Exploitation of host plant resistance is therefore the most trustworthy way to overcome the situation Numerous sources of resistance to Fusarium wilt in chickpea has been identified previously (Pande et al, 2006;Mirzapour et al, 2014;Chobe et al, 2016) and several are being utilized in resistance breeding program at ICRISAT and National Agricultural Research Stations (NARS) that has contributed in substantial increase of chickpea productivity in semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia (Sharma et al, 2012;Fikre et al, 2018).…”

Epiphytic Bacteria from Sweet Pepper Antagonistic In Vitro to Ralstonia solanacearum BD 261, a Causative Agent of Bacterial Wilt

“…Biological control (particularly, using antagonists) is poised as the most sustainable and environmentally safe, disease control strategy in crop production [22][23][24]. However, the roles of antagonists in controlling bacterial wilt, a disease caused by the most devastating and widely distributed pathogen of sweet peppers (i.e., R. solanacearum), are poorly understood.…”

“…Biological control agents (especially, antagonists) are widely accepted as sustainable and ideal for protecting the integrity of ecosystems and biodiversity [22][23][24]. For instance, field evaluations of the bacterial antagonists Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SQR-7 and SQR-101 and B. methylotrophicus SQR-29 against R. solanacearum showed biocontrol efficacy (BE) of 18-60% in tobacco [25].…”

When Salt Meddles Between Plant, Soil, and Microorganisms

“…Crops protection against pathogens is extremely difficult, because the use of chemicals agents e.g. fungicides, bactericides and nematicides has a negative impact on the environment and organisms while increases the costs of cultivation ( Egamberdieva et al., 2017 ; Sharma et al., 2017 ). An alternative to the use of chemicals is the use of PGPRs and PGPFs, which could synthesise the aforementioned lytic enzymes, siderophores, IAA, and antibiotics.…”