Bacteriophages as Emerging Biotechnological Tool for Plant Disease Control: Current Status, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Erwinia amylovora bacteriophages as biological agents for targeted and sustainable fire blight management

Fire blight, caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Erwinia amylovora, is one of the most destructive diseases of pome-fruit crops worldwide. Despite decades of research, its management remains challenging because efficient and sustainable control options are limited, and many commercially important apple and pear cultivars remain highly susceptible. Conventional treatments for bacterial disease suppression are often hindered by inconsistent efficacy, phytotoxic effect, environmental concerns and regulatory restrictions, necessitating new sustainable alternative options. Virulent bacteriophages have emerged as promising biocontrol agents for controlling E. amylovora due to their unique biological properties, including a distinct mode of action, capacity to replicate within bacterial cells and high host specificity. These features enable effective suppression of pathogen populations, while potentially minimizing impact on non-target microbiota, depending on their host range and ecological interactions. However, further research is needed to better understand phage-host interactions, safety issues, and the environmental factors that influence phage efficacy in field application. Furthermore, combining phages with other compatible management approaches may improve disease control and help mitigate the emergence of resistant pathogen populations. This narrative review summarizes the key characteristics of E. amylovora phages, and recent advances in phage-based fire blight control, highlighting their potential role in integrated and sustainable disease management strategies.

Nano-enabled disruption of bacterial virulence and communication in plant pathosystems: emerging strategies for sustainable disease management

Bacterial diseases are a major cause of crop losses worldwide, threatening food security and the sustainability of agricultural production. Traditional management practices heavily rely on antibiotics, resistant strains and copper-based compounds but their continued efficiency is hampered by antimicrobial resistance, ecological issues and rapid evolution of pathogens. Nano-enabled anti-virulence strategies offer a novel approach that specifically targets bacterial virulence instead of the killing of the pathogens alone, which can potentially reduce the pressure for resistance development. This review rigorously investigates mechanistic basis of nano-facilitated interference in bacterial communication and pathogenicity in the plant pathosystems. We evaluated the impact of metallic, metal oxide, silica-based, carbon-based and polymeric nanomaterials on quorum sensing (QS), biofilm formation, extracellular polysaccharide synthesis, motility, secretion pathways, phytotoxin production and host colonization. Particular emphasis is placed on nanoparticle–pathogen interactions, nano-enabled delivery of quorum quenchers, RNA molecules and biological agents, microbiome compatibility, and the integration of these processes within a mechanistic anti-virulence framework. Current evidence indicates that nanomaterial efficacy is strongly influenced by physicochemical properties, target virulence mechanisms, delivery efficiency, and environmental conditions; therefore, no single nanoplatform is universally optimal across plant–pathogen systems. Although smart delivery systems provide opportunities to simultaneously interfere with interconnected virulence pathways, their practical application remains constrained by field stability, biosafety, non-target effects, scalability, and regulatory uncertainty. Overall, advancing nano-enabled anti-virulence technologies from laboratory efficacy toward sustainable crop protection will require mechanism-guided nanomaterial design, microbiome-compatible formulations, rigorous field validation, and comprehensive environmental risk assessment.

Insights into the application and functional mechanisms of biocontrol against fungal pathogens in rice

This review summarizes recent findings on the use and actual mechanisms of BCAs against the primary rice fungal pathogens, and discusses a variety of methods of application, like as foliar sprays, soil inoculation, and seed dressing, and focuses on the significance of developing stable and efficient formulations.

Harnessing Beneficial Bacteria for the Sustainable Management of Plant Viral Diseases

Advances and challenges in building microbial cell factories for phytohormone biomanufacturing toward sustainable agriculture.

The long-term and extensive use of conventional chemical pesticides has led to a series of problems, including pesticide resistance in plant pathogens and insect pests, environmental pollution, and risks to the safety of agricultural products. These challenges have created an urgent need for green, efficient, and sustainable alternative pest management strategies. As endogenous signaling molecules, phytohormones play crucial roles in regulating plant growth and development, enhancing stress tolerance, and inducing disease resistance. Owing to their environmental compatibility, target specificity, and biodegradability, phytohormones have emerged as promising candidates for the development of green agrochemicals. This review systematically summarizes the classification, biological functions, and biosynthetic pathways of the major phytohormones, including abscisic acid, gibberellins, jasmonic acid, salicylic acid, auxins, and others. Particular emphasis is placed on synthetic biology strategies for producing phytohormones using microbial cell factories, including promoter engineering, cofactor engineering, transporter engineering, dynamic regulation, cytochrome P450 engineering, subcellular compartmentalization, protein engineering and automation and artificial intelligence engineering. In addition, the major challenges associated with microbial production of phytohormones are discussed, such as the low activity of heterologously expressed cytochrome P450 and the complexity of subcellular compartmentalization. The review further highlights the potential applications of automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in accelerating the development of microbial cell factories and optimizing metabolic networks and fermentation processes. Finally, future directions for the industrial-scale production of phytohormones are proposed from three perspectives: efficient product recovery, the development of advanced synthetic biology tools, and AI-enabled biomanufacturing technologies.

Direct Antifungal Effects of Actinobacteria as Biocontrol Agents Against Pre- and Postharvest Diseases in Fruits, Vegetables, and Cereals

This review summarizes current knowledge on direct mechanisms of actinobacteria and their metabolites, aiming to support the future application of actinobacteria and their metabolites as part of biological plant disease management strategies.