Biocontrol of Plant Diseases Using Beneficial Microorganisms and Their Derivatives: From Perception to Mode of Action
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Farming Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 August 2020) | Viewed by 14163
Special Issue Editor
Interests: plant-microbe interaction; stress physiology plants responses to biotic and abiotic stress; crop protection; biological control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Feeding nine billion people by 2050 represents a huge challenge. In addition to an increase in food production, we need to significantly improve the resilience of food production to face detrimental environmental impacts. Today, conventional agriculture is particularly dependent on chemicals to control crop diseases. Nevertheless, many of these products are now being phased out because of concerns about their environmental impact and safety, or the resistance developed by the targeted organisms.
Enhancing resistance is one of the most potential agronomic strategies to prevent biotic losses in crops. Plants provide an excellent ecosystem for microorganisms that interact with plant cells and tissues with differing degrees of dependence. During the past couple of decades, the use of microbial biological control agents (MBCAs) for a sustainable agriculture has increased tremendously in various parts of the world. MBCAs have been shown to mediate enhanced resistance to biotic stressors and increase tolerance to abiotic stresses in host plants through different modes of action.
The present issue will present state-of-the-art research results, visions, and theories, as well as specific methods for sustainable plant diseases management in changing climatic conditions. Submissions on (but not limited to) the plant–microbe interaction are invited to foster knowledge by understanding the biocontrol mechanisms on the plant host through: (i) increasing the fundamental insight into the underlying molecular and physiological mechanisms involved in the tripartite interactions between MBCAs and their derivatives, pathogens, and plants under climate change mitigation: What are the modes of action of beneficial microorganisms? How do the plants react? (ii) studying the interaction between genetic background of the plant host and the MBCA-induced resistance; and (iii) elucidating the impact of changing environmental conditions on biocontrol performance. This issue will be useful not only for students, teachers, and researchers but also for those interested in agriculture microbiology, plant pathology, biological control, environmental science, and agronomy.
Prof. Essaid Ait Barka
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- Screening and characterization of microbial biological control agents
- Microbial sensing
- Microbial biological control agent-induced resistance
- Microbial ecology
- Unravelling plant–pathogen–microbial biological control agent(s) interaction
- Toward sustainable agriculture management
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