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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #382092
Research Project: Improving Food Safety by Controlling Mycotoxin Contamination and Enhancing Climate Resilience of Wheat and Barley

Location: Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research

Title: Harnessing chemical ecology for environment-friendly crop protection

Author
item KANG, SEOGCHAN - Pennsylvania State University
item LUMACTUD, RHEA - Pennsylvania State University
item LI, NINGXIAO - Pennsylvania State University
item BELL, TERRENCE - 1854 Treaty Authority
item Kim, Hye-Seon
item PARK, SOOK-YOUNG - Suncheon National University
item LEE, YONG-HWAN - Seoul National University

Submitted to: Phytopathology
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/24/2021
Publication Date: 11/4/2021
Citation: Kang, S., Lumactud, R., Li, N., Bell, T.H., Kim, H.-S., Park, S.-Y., Lee, Y.-H. 2021. Harnessing chemical ecology for environment-friendly crop protection. Phytopathology. 111(10):1697-1710. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-01-21-0035-RVW.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-01-21-0035-RVW

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Heavy reliance on synthetic pesticides for crop protection has become increasingly unsustainable, calling for robust alternative strategies that do not degrade the environment and vital ecosystem services. There are numerous reports of successful disease control by various microbes used in small-scale trials. However, inconsistent efficacy has hampered their large-scale application. A better understanding of how beneficial microbes interact with plants, other microbes, and the environment and which factors affect disease control efficacy is crucial to deploy microbial agents as effective and reliable pesticide alternatives. Diverse metabolites produced by plants and microbes participate in pathogenesis and defense, regulate the growth and development of themselves and neighboring organisms, help maintain cellular homeostasis under various environmental conditions, and affect the assembly and activity of plant and soil microbiomes. However, research on the metabolites associated with plant health-related processes, except antibiotics, has not received adequate attention. This review highlights several classes of metabolites known or suspected to affect plant health, focusing on those associated with biocontrol and belowground plant–microbe and microbe–microbe interactions. The review also describes how new insights from systematic explorations of the diversity and mechanism of action of bioactive metabolites can be harnessed to develop novel crop protection strategies.