Exploring Phages as Promising Biocontrol Agents for managing Bacterial Diseases in Plants

Abstract

Bacteriophages (phages) are beneficial viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria, presenting a promising agent for combating bacterial diseases in diverse ecosystems including agriculture. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in harnessing the potential of bacteriophages to control plant bacterial pathogens due to their specificity, efficacy, and environmentally friendly nature. In this study, we tried to recover lytic phages from local environmental samples; soil, irrigation water, rotted fruits, and organic manure with the aim to evaluate their presence and efficacy against soft rot pathogens. In total, eight lytic phages were isolated from ten environmental sources. Phages infecting Pseudomonas spp. were commonly recovered from a diverse range of environmental samples in comparison to Pectobacterium brasiliense, Klebsiealle oxytoca and Dickeya fangzhongdai. Enriched organic manures and rotted potato tuber assays were found to be effective (in vitro) and inhibited the growth of soft rot causing pathogens of potato soft rot, banana corm rot, bacterial soft rot of lettuce and leaf spot of parsley. Morphological characterization using electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that a P. brasiliense phage belongs to family Podoviridae and Pseudomonas sp. phages to Siphoviridae and Myoviridae. In conclusion, bacteriophages hold immense potential as sustainable and ecofriendly alternative for managing bacterial diseases in plants. 44 However, challenges still exist in scaling up of phage production, field application and molecular characterization of isolated phages. Continued research efforts are in progress to address knowledge gaps, optimize phage-based interventions, and integrating phage-based strategies into existing agricultural practices.