Elimination of Fungal Leaf Mosaic Disease of Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) Using Fungo-Phage Therapy: A Possible Approach for Food Security with Plant Protection

Abstract

Plant protection using fungal phage has always been a point of research and discussion to minimise the chemical intervention. The ergonomics of phage production is relatively simple, and its cost-effectiveness makes it an efficient tool to address the epidemics of plant kingdom. Prevalent environmental aspects do interfere with the phage efficacy, also being significant in the alteration of other biological control agents, such as susceptibility of the target organism. Dynamicity of phage-based plant protection process requires continuous tuning of the phage preparation to combat pathogenic bacteria effectively. The implication of lytic cycle abbreviates the process since the invading lytic phage destroys bacterial cell post virion replication and navigates for new hosts to infect. Host specificity is most significant aspect pertaining to bacteriophagic plant protection. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020.