Antagonism (in phytopathology) occurs when one organism inhibits or slows down the growth of a plant disease-causing organism, such as harmful bacteria or fungi. [1] Most plants can host a variety of pathogens and are often infected by multiple species simultaneously. [2] In ecology, species competing for the same resource can influence each other in two ways: antagonism, where one pathogen harms another, and synergism, where one pathogen supports the grow of another. [3]
Antagonism is often employed as a natural method to protect plants from diseases. This can occur through mechanism such as competition for space and nutrients, the production of toxins or siderophores by one pathogen to suppress another, [4] induction of host resistance, or other processes that inhibit the growth or reproduction of pathogens, as demonstrated in the Ascochyta blight complex on peas. [5]
The mechanism of antibiosis involves an interaction between two organisms, where one organism produces substances such as toxins, enzymes, or antibiotics that harm another organism, particularly pathogens. [6] These interactions reduce pathogen viability of pathogens, limit the spread of disease, and enhance plant protection. For instance, antagonistic microbes can produce lytic enzymes, such as chitinases, which break down the cell walls of fungal pathogens, effectively inhibiting their growth. [7] [8] Another example is Pseudomonas aeruginosa , [9] which shows antagonism against Cladosporium. Such organisms are of great practical importance as they often produce antibiotics that modify normal growth processes.
The mechasism of hyperparasitism involves a parasitic relationship where one organism, typically a fungus, directly attacks another pathogenic fungus. [7] The hyperparasite physically interacts with the host, penetrates its cell wall, and extract nutrients. An example is the hyperparasitic fungus, Cladosporium cladosporioides , which parasitizes Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), the causal agent of wheat stripe rust. [10]
Induction of resistance in antagonism refers to the ability of an antagonistic bacterium to activate a host's defense mechanisms through biochemical changes, such as the production of pathogenesis-related proteins or antimicrobial compounds, thereby enhancing the plant's immunity locally or systemically against pathogens. [11] For example, Bacillus subtilis induces systemic resistance in plants by triggering the production of pathogenesis-related proteins and antimicrobial compounds, offering protection against fungal pathogens such as Botrytis cinerea . [12]
Competition for resources occurs as antagonistic bacteria colonize the host and outcompete phytopathogens for essential nutrients, such as carbon sources like sucrose, fructose, and glucose, thereby reducing spore germination and the pathogen's ability to invade the host. [13] For example, the yeast antagonist Rhodotorula glutinis deprives pathogens of critical micronutrients, such as iron, by producing siderophores. [14]
Plant diseases are typically managed using synthetic pesticides, however, their use can lead to environmental contamination, reduced biological diversity, the development of resistance in pathogens, and risks to human and animal health. [15] Antagonism plays a critical role in agriculture, particularly in the development of biological control agent (BCAs) to manage phytopathogens and reduce reliance on synthetic pesticides. [16] Numerous microbial antagonists, including yeasts and bacteria, are isolated from diverse environments such as soil, plants, compost, and oceans for their potential to control plant diseases. For example, endophyte microorganisms found inside guarana seeds and rhizospheric soil have shown their ability to fight harmful pathogens, making them promising candidates for BCAs.
BCAs are applied during both preharvest and postharvest stages to protect crops like citrus, bananas, peaches, and strawberries. [17] [18] Preharvest applications of antagonistic microbes, such as Burkholderia spinosa on bananas and Pantoea agglomerans on citrus, have successfully reduced diseases caused by pathogens such as Penicillium digitatum and Colletotrichum acutatum . [19] [20] Additionally, combining BCAs with antimicrobial compounds like chitosan or bicarbonates, has been shown to enhance their effectiveness and increase crop yield. [21]
In postharvest stages, microbial antagonists are applied directly to fruits through spraying or immersion in solutions. [22] Several bacterial strains, including Bacillus subtilis , Pantoea agglomerans , and Serratia plymuthica , have been used successfully to suppress fungal growth and control diseases during storage. [23]
Overall, BCAs provide a sustainable alternative to synthetic pesticides, offering effective plant protection. [24] However, continued research and development are essential to enhance their efficacy and addressing challenges such as high costs and limited commercial viability.
Botrytis cinerea is a necrotrophic fungus that affects many plant species, although its most notable hosts may be wine grapes. In viticulture, it is commonly known as "botrytis bunch rot"; in horticulture, it is usually called "grey mould" or "gray mold".
An endophyte is an endosymbiont, often a bacterium or fungus, that lives within a plant for at least part of its life cycle without causing apparent disease. Endophytes are ubiquitous and have been found in all species of plants studied to date; however, most of the endophyte/plant relationships are not well understood. Some endophytes may enhance host growth and nutrient acquisition and improve the plant's ability to tolerate abiotic stresses, such as drought, and decrease biotic stresses by enhancing plant resistance to insects, pathogens and herbivores. Although endophytic bacteria and fungi are frequently studied, endophytic archaea are increasingly being considered for their role in plant growth promotion as part of the core microbiome of a plant.
A hyperparasite, also known as a metaparasite, is a parasite whose host, often an insect, is also a parasite, often specifically a parasitoid. Hyperparasites are found mainly among the wasp-waisted Apocrita within the Hymenoptera, and in two other insect orders, the Diptera and Coleoptera (beetles). Seventeen families in Hymenoptera and a few species of Diptera and Coleoptera are hyperparasitic. Hyperparasitism developed from primary parasitism, which evolved in the Jurassic period in the Hymenoptera. Hyperparasitism intrigues entomologists because of its multidisciplinary relationship to evolution, ecology, behavior, biological control, taxonomy, and mathematical models.
Pantoea stewartii is a species of plant pathogenic bacteria that causes Stewart's wilt of corn, as well as jackfruit-bronzing disease, bacterial leaf wilt of sugarcane, and leaf blight in rice. P. stewartii is a gram-negative bacterium in the Enterobacterales, a group that also includes Escherichia coli and several other human, animal, and plant pathogens. Most research on this bacterial pathogen to date has been done on strains infecting corn as the other diseases have been identified much more recently. Due to being relatively easy to work with in laboratory research, P. stewartii has been used to study a range of processes in bacterial physiology including quorum sensing, bacterial pigment production, endoglucanase enzymes, and siderophore-mediated iron acquisition.
A Biopesticide is a biological substance or organism that damages, kills, or repels organisms seens as pests. Biological pest management intervention involves predatory, parasitic, or chemical relationships.
Paenibacillus is a genus of facultative anaerobic, endospore-forming bacteria, originally included within the genus Bacillus and then reclassified as a separate genus in 1993. Bacteria belonging to this genus have been detected in a variety of environments, such as: soil, water, rhizosphere, vegetable matter, forage and insect larvae, as well as clinical samples. The name reflects: Latin paene means almost, so the paenibacilli are literally "almost bacilli". The genus includes P. larvae, which causes American foulbrood in honeybees, P. polymyxa, which is capable of fixing nitrogen, so is used in agriculture and horticulture, the Paenibacillus sp. JDR-2 which is a rich source of chemical agents for biotechnology applications, and pattern-forming strains such as P. vortex and P. dendritiformis discovered in the early 90s, which develop complex colonies with intricate architectures as shown in the pictures:
The rhizosphere is the narrow region of soil or substrate that is directly influenced by root secretions and associated soil microorganisms known as the root microbiome. Soil pores in the rhizosphere can contain many bacteria and other microorganisms that feed on sloughed-off plant cells, termed rhizodeposition, and the proteins and sugars released by roots, termed root exudates. This symbiosis leads to more complex interactions, influencing plant growth and competition for resources. Much of the nutrient cycling and disease suppression by antibiotics required by plants occurs immediately adjacent to roots due to root exudates and metabolic products of symbiotic and pathogenic communities of microorganisms. The rhizosphere also provides space to produce allelochemicals to control neighbours and relatives.
Pantoea is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria of the family Erwiniaceae, recently separated from the genus Enterobacter. This genus includes at least 20 species. Pantoea bacteria are yellow pigmented, ferment lactose, are motile, and form mucoid colonies. Some species show quorum sensing ability that could drive different gene expression, hence controlling certain physiological activities. Levan polysaccharide produced by Pantoea agglomerans ZMR7 was reported to decrease the viability of rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) and breast cancer (MDA) cells compared with untreated cancer cells. In addition, it has high antiparasitic activity against the promastigote of Leishmania tropica.
Pantoea agglomerans is a Gram-negative bacterium that belongs to the family Erwiniaceae.
Pythium ultimum is a plant pathogen. It causes damping off and root rot diseases of hundreds of diverse plant hosts including maize, soybean, potato, wheat, fir, and many ornamental species. P. ultimum belongs to the peronosporalean lineage of oomycetes, along with other important plant pathogens such as Phytophthora spp. and many genera of downy mildews. P. ultimum is a frequent inhabitant of fields, freshwater ponds, and decomposing vegetation in most areas of the world. Contributing to the widespread distribution and persistence of P. ultimum is its ability to grow saprotrophically in soil and plant residue. This trait is also exhibited by most Pythium spp. but not by the related Phytophthora spp., which can only colonize living plant hosts.
Aureobasidium pullulans is a ubiquitous and generalistic black, yeast-like fungus that can be found in different environments. It is well known as a naturally occurring epiphyte or endophyte of a wide range of plant species without causing any symptoms of disease. A. pullulans has a high importance in biotechnology for the production of different enzymes, siderophores and pullulan. Furthermore, A. pullulans is used in biological control of plant diseases, especially storage diseases.
Helminthosporium solani is a fungal plant pathogen responsible for the plant disease known as silver scurf. Silver scurf is a blemish disease, meaning the effect it has on tubers is mostly cosmetic and affects "fresh market, processing and seed tuber potatoes." There are some reports of it affecting development, meaning growth and tuber yield. This is caused by light brown lesions, which in turn change the permeability of tuber skin and then it causes tuber shrinkage and water loss, which finally causes weight loss. The disease has become economically important because silver scurf affected potatoes for processing and direct consumption have been rejected by the industry. The disease cycle can be divided into two stages: field and storage. It is mainly a seed borne disease and the primary source of inoculum is mainly infected potato seed tubers. Symptoms develop and worsen in storage because the conditions are conducive to sporulation. The ideal conditions for the spread of this disease are high temperatures and high humidity. There are also many cultural practices that favor spread and development. There are multiple ways to help control the disease.
Antibiosis, also referred to as antagonism, a process of biological interaction between two or more organisms that is detrimental to at least one of them; it can also be an antagonistic association between an organism and the metabolic substances produced by another. Antibiosis can occur through a variety of mechanisms, with "injury, death, reduced longevity, or reduced reproduction of the pest" being common. The process of antibiosis is either reversible or irreversible, and is caused by the production of volatile organic compounds by plant-growth-promoting rhizobacterium (PGPR). Antibiosis is one of two forms of amensalism, the other form being competition. Primary examples of antibiosis include "antibacterial activity against bacteria, fungus, nematodes, insects, and occasionally against plants and algae".
Rhodotorulic acid is the smallest of the 2,5-diketopiperazine family of hydroxamate siderophores which are high-affinity chelating agents for ferric iron, produced by bacterial and fungal phytopathogens for scavenging iron from the environment. It is a tetradentate ligand, meaning it binds one iron atom in four locations (two hydroxamate and two lactam moieties), and forms Fe2(siderophore)3 complexes to fulfill an octahedral coordination for iron.
2,4-Diacetylphloroglucinol or Phl is a natural phenol found in several bacteria:
Phytobacter is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria emerging from the grouping of isolates previously assigned to various genera of the family Enterobacteriaceae. This genus was first established on the basis of nitrogen fixing isolates from wild rice in China, but also includes a number of isolates obtained during a 2013 multi-state sepsis outbreak in Brazil and, retrospectively, several clinical strains isolated in the 1970s in the United States that are still available in culture collections, which originally were grouped into Brenner's Biotype XII of the Erwinia herbicola-Enterobacter agglomerans-Complex (EEC). Standard biochemical evaluation panels are lacking Phytobacter spp. from their database, thus often leading to misidentifications with other Enterobacterales species, especially Pantoea agglomerans. Clinical isolates of the species have been identified as an important source of extended-spectrum β-lactamase and carbapenem-resistance genes, which are usually mediated by genetic mobile elements. Strong protection of co-infecting sensitive bacteria has also been reported. Bacteria belonging to this genus are not pigmented, chemoorganotrophic and able to fix nitrogen. They are lactose fermenting, cytochrome-oxidase negative and catalase positive. Glucose is fermented with the production of gas. Colonies growing on MacConkey agar (MAC) are circular, convex and smooth with non-entire margins and a usually elevated center. Three species are currently validly included in the genus Phytobacter, which is still included within the Kosakonia clade in the lately reviewed family of Enterobacteriaceae. The incorporation of a fourth species, Phytobacter massiliensis, has recently been proposed via the unification of the genera Metakosakonia and Phytobacter.
Stenocarpella maydis (Berk.) Sutton is a plant pathogenic fungus and causal organism of diplodia ear and stalk rot. Corn and canes are the only known hosts to date. No teleomorph of the fungus is known.
A mycoparasite is an organism with the ability to parasitize fungi.
Rice-sheath blight is a disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani, a basidiomycete, that causes major limitations on rice production in India and other countries of Asia. It is also a problem in the southern US, where rice is also produced. It can decrease yield up to 50%, and reduce its quality. It causes lesions on the rice plant, and can also cause pre- and post-emergence seedling blight, banded leaf blight, panicle infection and spotted seed.
Trichoderma atroviride is a filamentous fungal species commonly found in the soil. This fungal species is of particular interest to researchers due to the plethora of secondary metabolites it makes which are used in industry The genus Trichoderma is known for its ubiquity in almost all soils and being easy to culture. Many Trichoderma's are also avirulent plant symbionts.