Control of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria with the Lowest Environmental Impact

A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 16863

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Interests: plant pathogenic bacteria with the lowest environmental impact; plants, bacterial pathogens, and biological control; disease management strategies; antibiotic resistant bacteria
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bacterial diseases of plants are very difficult to control and cause significant annual loses on a global scale. Traditional crop protection practices are not cost-effective, and chemicals have limited access and bactericidal activity to pathogens on plant surfaces. Copper compounds have been successful, but their extensive use has led to environmental toxicity and emergence of resistant strains. The use of streptomycin and oxytetracycline has been minimal or even restricted in most counties, in order to avoid the development of antibiotic resistance, but has been recently enhanced in others. Alternative and environmentally-friendly strategies for bacterial control are mainly based on the use of biological control agents. Plant immunity inducers, antimicrobial peptides, and nanotechnology products are promising, but their impact is still under debate. For this Special Issue of Pathogens, we invite you to submit original research or review articles, short notes, as well as communications in relevant research foci.

We look forward to your contribution.

Dr. Nikolaos Skandalis
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Plant pathogenic bacteria
  • Plant immunity
  • Bactericides
  • Biological control agent
  • Nanotechnology
  • Environmental impact

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 3862 KiB  
Article
Bactericides Based on Copper Nanoparticles Restrain Growth of Important Plant Pathogens
by Adamantia Varympopi, Anastasia Dimopoulou, Ioannis Theologidis, Theodora Karamanidou, Alexandra Kaldeli Kerou, Afroditi Vlachou, Dimitrios Karfaridis, Dimitris Papafotis, Dimitris G. Hatzinikolaou, Alexander Tsouknidas and Nicholas Skandalis
Pathogens 2020, 9(12), 1024; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9121024 - 5 Dec 2020
Cited by 32 | Viewed by 3994
Abstract
Copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) can offer an alternative to conventional copper bactericides and possibly slow down the development of bacterial resistance. This will consequently lower the accumulation rate of copper to soil and water and lower the environmental and health burden imposed by copper [...] Read more.
Copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) can offer an alternative to conventional copper bactericides and possibly slow down the development of bacterial resistance. This will consequently lower the accumulation rate of copper to soil and water and lower the environmental and health burden imposed by copper application. Physical and chemical methods have been reported to synthesize CuNPs but their use as bactericides in plants has been understudied. In this study, two different CuNPs products have been developed, CuNP1 and CuNP2 in two respective concentrations (1500 ppm or 300 ppm). Both products were characterized using Dynamic Light Scattering, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Attenuated Total Reflection measurements, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction and Scattering, and Laser Doppler Electrophoresis. They were evaluated for their antibacterial efficacy in vitro against the gram-negative species Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Dickeya dadantii, Erwinia amylovora, Pectobacterium carotovorum, Pseudomonas corrugata, Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. savastanoi, and Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris. Evaluation was based on comparisons with two commercial bactericides: Kocide (copper hydroxide) and Nordox (copper oxide). CuNP1 inhibited the growth of five species, restrained the growth of P. corrugata, and had no effect in X. c. pv campestris. MICs were significantly lower than those of the commercial formulations. CuNP2 inhibited the growth of E. amylovora and restrained growth of P. s. pv. savastanoi. Again, its overall activity was higher compared to commercial formulations. An extensive in vitro evaluation of CuNPs that show higher potential compared to their conventional counterpart is reported for the first time and suggests that synthesis of stable CuNPs can lead to the development of low-cost sustainable commercial products. Full article
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20 pages, 2856 KiB  
Article
Compost Amendments Based on Vinegar Residue Promote Tomato Growth and Suppress Bacterial Wilt Caused by Ralstonia Solanacearum
by Mingming He, Mohammad Shah Jahan, Yu Wang, Jin Sun, Sheng Shu and Shirong Guo
Pathogens 2020, 9(3), 227; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9030227 - 19 Mar 2020
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 5267
Abstract
Tomato bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum (RS) is one of the most devastating soil-borne diseases, and compost is to be considered as a resource-saving and environment-friendly measure to control the disease. Herein, a pot experiment was implemented to explore the effects of [...] Read more.
Tomato bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum (RS) is one of the most devastating soil-borne diseases, and compost is to be considered as a resource-saving and environment-friendly measure to control the disease. Herein, a pot experiment was implemented to explore the effects of vinegar residue matrix amendments on the growth performances of tomato seedlings and to examine the suppression ability against bacterial wilt under vinegar residue substrate (VRS), and peat substrate (Peat) with RS inoculation. The results revealed that VRS effectively suppressed the disease incidence of bacterial wilt, increased the number of bacteria and actinomycetes, decreased fungi populations, promoted soil microbial populations and microbial activities, enhanced the growths of tomato seedlings, and modulated defense mechanism. In addition, VRS efficiently inhibited the oxidative damage in RS inoculated leaves via the regulation of excess reactive oxide species (O2•− and H2O2) production, lessening of malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and causing less membrane injury; resulting in enhancements of antioxidants enzymes activities accompanying with modulating their encoding gene expression. The transcription levels of NPR1, PIN2, PR1b, ACO1, EDS1, PR1B, MAPK3, PIN2, and RRS1 were also modulated with the pathogens inoculated in tomato leaves both in VRS and Peat treatments, which indicated that systemic-acquired resistance possesses cross-talk between salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and the ethylene-dependent signaling pathway. Besides, the RS inoculation significantly inhibited the growth of tomato seedlings, and all growth indices of plants grown in VRS were considerably higher than those produced in Peat. Taken together, VRS represents a new strategy to control tomato bacterial wilt through boosting the soil microbial populations and microbial activities. Furthermore, VRS promotes the plant immune response to provide a better growth environment for plants surviving in disease conditions. Full article
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17 pages, 3207 KiB  
Article
Silver Nanoparticles Synthesized by Using Bacillus cereus SZT1 Ameliorated the Damage of Bacterial Leaf Blight Pathogen in Rice
by Temoor Ahmed, Muhammad Shahid, Muhammad Noman, Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi, Faisal Mahmood, Irfan Manzoor, Yang Zhang, Bin Li, Yong Yang, Chengqi Yan and Jianping Chen
Pathogens 2020, 9(3), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9030160 - 26 Feb 2020
Cited by 135 | Viewed by 6932
Abstract
Amongst serious biotic factors deteriorating crop yield, the most destructive pathogen of rice is Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), which causes bacterial leaf blight (BLB) disease. This study involved targeted use of biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to control BLB in order [...] Read more.
Amongst serious biotic factors deteriorating crop yield, the most destructive pathogen of rice is Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), which causes bacterial leaf blight (BLB) disease. This study involved targeted use of biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to control BLB in order to cope with the disadvantages of chemical disease control. AgNPs were biologically synthesized from natively isolated Bacillus cereus strain SZT1, which was identified through 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Synthesis of AgNPs in bacterial culture supernatant was confirmed through UV-VIS spectroscopy. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed that the existence of AgNPs was stabilized with proteins and alcoholic groups. X-ray diffraction (XRD) data revealed the crystalline nature and imaging with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), showing the spherical shape of AgNPs with particle sizes ranging from 18 to 39 nm. The silver presence in AgNPs was further confirmed by energy dispersive spectra. Biogenic AgNPs showed substantial antibacterial activity (24.21 ± 1.01 mm) for Xoo. In a pot experiment, AgNPs were found to be effective weapons for BLB by significantly increasing the plant biomass with a decreased cellular concentration of reactive oxygen species and increased concentration of antioxidant enzyme activity. Full article
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