Deploying Viruses against Phytobacteria: Potential Use of Phage Cocktails as a Multifaceted Approach to Combat Resistant Bacterial Plant Pathogens

Abstract

Plants in nature are under the persistent intimidation of severe microbial diseases, threatening a sustainable food production system. Plant-bacterial pathogens are a major concern in the contemporary era, resulting in reduced plant growth and productivity. Plant antibiotics and chemical-based bactericides have been extensively used to evade plant bacterial diseases. To counteract this pressure, bacteria have evolved an array of resistance mechanisms, including innate and adaptive immune systems. The emergence of resistant bacteria and detrimental consequences of antimicrobial compounds on the environment and human health, accentuates the development of an alternative disease evacuation strategy. The phage cocktail therapy is a multidimensional approach effectively employed for the biocontrol of diverse resistant bacterial infections without affecting the fauna and flora. Phages engage a diverse set of counter defense strategies to undermine wide-ranging anti-phage defense mechanisms of bacterial pathogens. Microbial ecology, evolution, and dynamics of the interactions between phage and plant-bacterial pathogens lead to the engineering of robust phage cocktail therapeutics for the mitigation of devastating phytobacterial diseases. In this review, we highlight the concrete and fundamental determinants in the development and application of phage cocktails and their underlying mechanism, combating resistant plant-bacterial pathogens. Additionally, we provide recent advances in the use of phage cocktail therapy against phytobacteria for the biocontrol of devastating plant diseases.

Phage Products for Fighting Antimicrobial Resistance

“…More than 200 plant bacteria have been reported to cause significant crop losses during preharvest, storage, and transport [ 25 ]. Antibiotics have also been used against plant pathogens since World War II, and AMR has been widespread in some plants and crops due to the dissemination of resistance genes in the environment.…”

Factory farming in Canada: Addressing imprudent antibiotic usage and the conditions experienced by non-human animals to enhance global health

“…In addition to issues pertaining to food security and the enforcement of regulations, the bacteriophage therapy component of the proposal is fraught with additional challenges which may further limit its efficacy. Phage resistance, for example, may occur as bacteria rapidly develop antiphage mutations including modification of target receptors, facilitating evasion and reducing the benefit provided by therapy (Farooq et al, 2022). To overcome this challenge, monophage therapies may be replaced with lytic phage cocktails possessing an array of infection strategies to reduce the likelihood of resistance among bacterial hosts, with a broad spectrum of activity facilitated by receptor diversity, short latency, and strong adsorption to host surfaces (Farooq et al, 2022).…”

“…Phage resistance, for example, may occur as bacteria rapidly develop antiphage mutations including modification of target receptors, facilitating evasion and reducing the benefit provided by therapy (Farooq et al, 2022). To overcome this challenge, monophage therapies may be replaced with lytic phage cocktails possessing an array of infection strategies to reduce the likelihood of resistance among bacterial hosts, with a broad spectrum of activity facilitated by receptor diversity, short latency, and strong adsorption to host surfaces (Farooq et al, 2022). These cocktails remain specific for target cells and thus provide a continued advantage over antibiotic therapies, overcoming resistance with ease given activity against single bacterial strains, single species possessing various strains, or several distinct species of bacteria (Ling et al, 2022).…”

Phage–Plant Interactions: A Way Forward toward Sustainable Agriculture

“…Agriculture is the most important sector as it provides food to the growing global population. Agricultural crops are severely affected by plant-bacterial pathogens, resulting in a significant reduction in plant growth and productivity [ 1 ]. Over the past few decades, chemical pesticides and antibiotics have been widely used for plant disease management; however, these options are environmentally damaging, expensive, lead to pathogen resistance, and pose severe threats to human health and food safety.…”

“…This Special Issue contains four original research articles and two review articles that contribute to the knowledge of phage–plant interactions. Farooq et al [ 1 ] reviewed numerous underlying mechanisms of phage–bacterial pathogen interactions, enabling the formulation of effective phage cocktail therapies against phytobacterial pathogens for plant disease management. They also highlighted the recent development and application of phage-mediated biocontrol strategies to combat resistant plant-bacterial pathogens.…”