Biocontrol technology: Eco-friendly approaches for sustainable agriculture

Abstract

Recent advances in structural and functional genomics are having penetrating impact on human and environmental health. As a potential alternative of hazardous chemical pesticides, agriculturally important microorganisms have gained popularity throughout the globe. There are various naturally occurring soil microbes that aggressively attack and destroy soil and seed-borne plant pathogens, hence referred as biocontrol agents that comprise members from bacterial, fungal, and viral genera. These biocontrol agents exhibit multiple beneficial characters such as plant growth promotion activity by secretion of various plant growth promoting hormones and by mobilization of many essential inorganic macro- and micronutrients, therefore commonly referred as biofertilizers. In addition to this, biocontrol efficacy in rhizospheric region imparts strong antagonistic potential against an array of plant pathogens by secretion of various antimicrobial secondary metabolites and hydrolytic enzymes (protease, pectinase, chitinase, lipase, etc.). The biocontrol activity is exercised directly by destruction of soil-borne pathogens or indirectly by inducing plant-mediated resistance responses. Role of biocontrol agents such as Trichoderma sp., Pseudomonas fluorescens, Beauveria bassiana, and Bacillus sp. for sustainable crop production has been investigated by multi-omics approach including functional genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and secretomics. Omics-based approaches have unraveled efficient application of genetic modifications for development of various target-specific formulations. This chapter focuses on the recent biotechnological advances in biocontrol of plant pathogens for sustainable agriculture. © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.