METABOLITES OF PSEUDOMONAS INVOLVED IN THE BIOCONTROL OF PLANT-DISEASE

There is increasing commercial and environmental interest in the use of microbe-based agents as alternatives to, or in combination with, chemicals for controlling the spread and severity of a range of crop diseases. The identification of specific microbial metabolites that are able to control certain plant diseases has led to the development of strategies for improving the performance and predictability of the microbial strains that produce these metabolites for application in the agricultural industry. This article focuses on antimicrobial metabolites produced by fluorescent pseudomonads, discusses their role in suppressing fungal diseases of important crops and reviews the prospects of genetically manipulating the producer organisms to improve the efficacy of these biocontrol agents.