Summary
This narrative review examines the use of single and multiple-strain microbial consortia as biological control agents against soil-borne plant diseases in agriculture and forestry. The authors synthesise current understanding of the mechanisms by which bacterial and fungal biocontrol agents suppress pathogens, identify key interaction-related factors that affect consortium efficacy, and propose a reductionist synthetic community approach for rational assembly of multi-strain consortia to overcome barriers such as inadequate host colonisation and inefficient pathogen inhibition in complex rhizosphere environments.
Regional applicability
The findings are applicable to UK crop and forestry production systems where soil-borne diseases threaten yield and quality. The proposed consortia approach and assembly workflow could inform development of microbial biocontrol products for UK growers seeking environmentally friendly alternatives to chemical disease management, though field validation under UK soil and climatic conditions would be required.
Key measures
Disease-suppressive efficacy of biocontrol agents; mechanisms of pathogen inhibition; colonisation capacity of host plants; microbial interactions within consortia
Outcomes reported
The paper summarises current evidence on single-strain and multi-strain biological control consortia used to manage soil-borne plant diseases, and discusses the mechanisms by which microbial components improve disease suppression efficacy. It proposes a reductionist synthetic community approach for assembling multiple-strain biological control consortia.
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