Biocontrol of clubroot disease: how successful are endophytic fungi and bacteria?

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

The commercial aspect of growing Brassica crops has always been influenced by the worldwide occurrence of the clubroot pathogen, Plasmodiophora brassicae. Clubroot symptoms reduce crop yield dramatically and the resilient protist is hard to eradicate from infested soils. Chemical treatments are not so efficient and their use is allowed only in a few areas of the world, none of them in the EU. The majority of clubroot control is mediated by using resistant crops, but not all species have good or durable resistance sources available, and these can be overcome by evolving or new Plasmodiophora pathotypes. Some commercially available biocontrol agents have been tested and found to reduce clubroot on crops such as rapeseed, cauliflower and Chinese cabbage to some extent. More biocontrol organisms have been isolated and described in recent decades but for many commercial application is still a long way off. In this review we summarize trends for bacterial and fungal endophytes for clubroot biocontrol as well as mechanisms behind the effects reported, such as antibiosis, defense induction or competition for space and nutrients. There are indeed plenty of studies on biocontrol of clubroot but not many have reached a point where the biocontrol agents are ready to be applied at field scale. The potential of endophytic microbes in pest management against clubroot disease is huge.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)433-451
Number of pages19
JournalEuropean Journal of Plant Pathology
Volume167
Issue number4
Early online dateJun 2023
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

WOS 001008734400002
Mendeley 5ed941dd-0ec2-3112-bc83-846519372d96

Keywords

Keywords

  • Biocontrol, Brassica crops, Clubroot, Endophyte, Plasmodiophora brassicae, Protist, Biocontrol, Brassica crops, Clubroot, Endophyte, Plasmodiophora brassicae, Protist

Library keywords