Plant-Microbe-Invertebrate Pest Interactions

Dear Colleagues,

The exploitation of beneficial microorganisms is considered a safe alternative to pesticides for crop protection and management. Many practical and social issues underpin this assumption, including human safety, environment and biodiversity protection, cost of conventional technologies, and insurgence of resistance in pests. There are, however, few examples of successful exploitation of invertebrate pathogens or parasites, in contrast to the still large use of pesticides, worldwide. A notable exception is represented by Bt-based products.

Two concepts are recognized at the base of plant protection and pest management: 1) There are no living organisms on earth that can be considered free from disease, antagonism, or competition, and 2) Crops represent the first permanent change induced by man, on a global scale. The cultivated field is the first environment modified by man through sowing, deforestation, soil reclamation, and selection of cropped plants. All these actions still affect plant biodiversity and their distribution in space and, indirectly, the distribution of pests and of their associated microbiomes. Yet, considering that only an estimated 10% of the whole microbial diversity has been thus far identified and characterized on earth, the amount of information produced on the biology, diversity, and ecology of many invertebrate-associated microorganisms is far from exhaustive. Data on interacting species and processes are needed, on many pests and from many environments.

The evolution and/or conservation of good agricultural practices also require strategies based on monitoring and modeling the behavior and biological cycle of parasites and pathogens. From this perspective, plant pests and diseases can be considered not only as the factors responsible for productivity losses in agriculture but also as the last and visible effect of changes originating in the genetics of crops (biodiversity/monocultures), transport (epidemics/invasive species), human actions (climate changes), movement of goods (globalization), land management, or in relation to loss of biodiversity and mass extinctions. Following the spread and modification of their distribution boundaries, many alien species are now able to reach and colonize new cultivated areas. In the absence of natural indigenous control agents, they represent a threat to many production systems. Any new information on their ecology and adaptation to local microbial antagonists and symbiont communities is, therefore, welcome.

Advances in the last decades concerning the application of mass sequencing technologies allowed an unprecedented capacity to study in detail the complex interactions that link host and pathogens, including the sophisticated evolutionary adaptations of obligate symbionts or of pest-interacting endophytic species. The focus of this Special Issue is on highlighting the role of microbial parasites and pathogens in their tri-trophic interaction with plants and invertebrate pests such as insects, nematodes, and mites. Our goal is to gather contributions describing results from original experimental work, as well as biogeographic reports, on new host–parasite associations and the application of forecasting and descriptive models, as well as molecular studies on pathogens and symbionts. Reviews offering new perspectives, including omic-based and molecular ecology data on the biology of invasive species and associated microbiomes, are also welcome. 

Dr. Aurelio Ciancio
Dr. Isabella Pentimone
Guest Editors

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• biocontrol
• fungi
• gene expression
• endophytes
• endosymbionts
• insect pathogens
• invasive species
• invertebrate pathology
• microbiome
• mite pathogens
• modeling
• nematode parasites
• plant–endophyte–pest interactions
• population dynamics
• rhizosphere microbiology
• soil food webs
• transciptomics