Original title: Mode of Action of Microbial Biological Control Agents Against Plant Diseases: Relevance Beyond Efficacy
Some helpful microbes control plant disease without attacking the pathogen: they can prepare a plant's defences or make conditions harder for the pathogen. Others compete for nutrients or interfere directly with the pathogen. These actions can combine, and the active substances may be made only at the plant, in small amounts. So a microbe that makes an antimicrobial substance in a lab may not use that substance to control disease on a plant.
Imagine packing lunch while someone else is trying to take the food. You could ask a friend to guard your bag, make it harder to reach, or stop the person directly. It is hard to tell which plan worked if you only test whether your friend can make a strong-smelling spray at home. In this paper, the lunch is the plant, the food thief is the pathogen, and the different ways your friend helps stand for the different ways useful microbes control disease.
Farmers and regulators need to know not only whether a microbial product controls disease, but how it does so. The mechanism affects how new agents are screened and how risks to people, the environment, and future effectiveness are assessed.
The abstract describes mechanisms and argues for reconsidering screening and registration approaches, but it does not report a specific experiment, compare particular agents, or provide evidence for a revised risk-assessment method. It also does not specify which data requirements should change.
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Mode of Action of Microbial Biological Control Agents Against Plant Diseases: Relevance Beyond Efficacy — J. Köhl, Rogier Willem Kolnaar, Willem J. Ravensberg — Frontiers in Plant Science — doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.00845
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.