Phage therapy and its application in plant diseases control

"Bacteriophage" is composed of two words "bacteria" and "phagein" which means to "eat", which refersto viruses that specifically infect bacteria and are one of the most common micro-organisms on earth.There have been documented reports about the possibility of treating infectious diseases such as leprosywith river water. More than a hundred years ago in ۱۸۹۶, Ernest Hanbury Henkin reported that the waterof the Hong Kong and Jumna rivers in India had a special antibacterial role against cholera. In the early۲۰th century, bacteriophages were discovered by Frederick Twort and Félix d'Hérelle. There weredisagreements about the nature and origin of the lthic phenomenon. Twort is considered a bacterialenzyme and d'Hérelle is a virus responsible for this phenomenon and called the viral agent of thisphenomenon "bacteriophage". Immediately after the first medical and veterinary applications, phageswere also evaluated to control plant diseases. The idea of using phages as control agents for bacterialdiseases was the result of d'Hérelle thinking. In the following years, advanced research knowledge andtechniques led to the successful treatment of several human bacterial diseases in the Netherlands and inGeorgia and Russia, medical products such as sprays, ampoules, and pills made of phages were used totreat skin and intestinal diseases. The use of phages in the biocontrol strategy of plant pathogens is due totheir ability to kill bacteria, as well as the observation of phages in the same bacterial host environment,which indicates their ability to survive in the same host environment. Phages have been used as a part ofthe integrated management of diseases due to their easy and convenient use, the possibility of beingcombined with other bactericides or alternating use with pesticides, and having relatively low prices.Although there are considerable doubts about the use of bacteriophages as effective biological controlagents. But the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the concern about the possibility oftransferring antibiotic resistance from plant pathogens to human pathogens and the emergence of coppertolerantstrains among plant bacteria have led to a renewed desire to control disease based onbacteriophages in modern agriculture. So far, phage therapy has been successfully used against agentssuch as the abacterial spot of edible mushrooms (Pseudomonas tolasi), bacterial leaf spot of mung beans,soft rot caused by Pectobacterium species, apple and pear blight (Erwinia amylovora), potato scab(Streptomyces scabies), geranium bacterial blight (Xantomonas hortorum pv. Pelargonii), and tomatobacterial spot (Xantomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria) have been used. It is true that bacteria can becomeresistant to phages in a manner similar to that seen in antibiotics, but the advantage of phages overantibiotics for treating pathogens is their ability to mutate and infect new hosts. The major problem ofphage-based biological control is the conversion of successful laboratory experiments into effectivecontrol methods against the pathogen at the field level. For this purpose, it is necessary to gain a completeunderstanding of the ecology and the complex host-phage interaction in different plant environments inorder to maximize the use of phages as a biocontrol method. Therefore, investigation and research in thefield of phages effectiveness in controlling plant diseases is the purpose of the recent review study

Keywords:

Bacteriophage , Biological control , Phage therapy , Plants