Advances in Bacteriophage-Mediated Control of Plant Pathogens

Table 1

Phage therapy trials of plant pathogens.

Pathogen	Host	Disease		References
Agrobacteriumtumefaciens	Tomato	Crown gall	Bioassay with infected tissue—bacteriophage had no effect	[37]
Dickeya solani	Potato	Soft rot	Small effect seen when seed tubers were treated with phage prior to planting	[23]
Erwinia amylovora	Pome fruits	Fire blight	Phages isolated and characterised in vitro. Some testing in planta, promising results in combination with non-pathogenic carrier Pantoea agglomerans	[24, 38, 39]
Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. caratovorum	Calla lily	Bacterial soft rot	Bacterial load reduction by phages but inhibition of killing by fertiliser solutions	[36]
Ralstonia solanacearum	Tobacco	Bacterial wilt	In a greenhouse trial pretreatment of plant roots with an avirulent strain and application of phage to the plants protected plants against bacterial wilt. No comparison was made to conventional chemical control methods	[40]
Ralstonia solanacearum	Tomato	Bacterial wilt	In a greenhouse trial pretreatment of tomato seedlings with φRSL1 prevented bacterial wilt in all plants, untreated plants all wilted. φRSL1 inhibited growth of bacteria but did not completely kill bacteria.	[41]
Streptomyces scabies	Potato	Potato scab	Phage treatment of seed tubers prior to planting reduced scab lesion coverage	[42]
Xanthomonas arboricola pv. pruni	Stonefruits	Bacterial spot	Application of phage to peach leaves prior to infection resulted in a 42% disease reduction compared to a nontreated control. Application of phage after infection had no effect	[43]
Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. allii	Onion	Xanthomonas leaf blight	Field and greenhouse trials of phage and plant activator provided equivalent protection to copper	[44]
Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. vignaeradiatae	Mungbean	Bacterial leaf spot	Synergistic effect of phage and streptomycin on mungbean seeds reduced seedling infection	[45]
Xanthomonas campestris pv. juglandis	Walnut	Walnut blight	Phage did not survive on walnut leaves in a greenhouse trial; pathogen was not included on leaves	[46]
Xanthomonas campestris pv. pruni	Peach	Leaf and fruit spot	A significant reduction in disease was seen in one out of three orchards with weekly application of a single phage	[47]
Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria	Tomato and Pepper	Bacterial spot	These studies have led to the successful development of a phage BCA (http://www.omnilytics.com/).	[48–51]
Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri	Citrus	Citrus canker	Mixed results in greenhouse and nursery trials when compared to copper bacteriocides	[25]
Xanthomonas fuscans subsp. citrumelonis	Citrus	Citrus bacterial spot	Mixed results in greenhouse and nursery trials when compared to copper bacteriocides	[25]