Fungal Biofilms: Targets for the Development of Novel Strategies in Plant Disease Management

The global food supply has been facing increasing challenges during the first decades of the 21(st) century. Disease in plants is an important constraint to worldwide crop production, accounting for 20–40% of its annual harvest loss. Although the use of resistant varieties, good water management and...

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Autores principales: Villa, Federica, Cappitelli, Francesca, Cortesi, Paolo, Kunova, Andrea
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5390024/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28450858
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00654
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author Villa, Federica
Cappitelli, Francesca
Cortesi, Paolo
Kunova, Andrea
author_facet Villa, Federica
Cappitelli, Francesca
Cortesi, Paolo
Kunova, Andrea
author_sort Villa, Federica
collection PubMed
description The global food supply has been facing increasing challenges during the first decades of the 21(st) century. Disease in plants is an important constraint to worldwide crop production, accounting for 20–40% of its annual harvest loss. Although the use of resistant varieties, good water management and agronomic practices are valid management tools in counteracting plant diseases, there are still many pathosystems where fungicides are widely used for disease management. However, restrictive regulations and increasing concern regarding the risk to human health and the environment, along with the incidence of fungicide resistance, have discouraged their use and have prompted for a search for new efficient, ecologically friendly and sustainable disease management strategies. The recent evidence of biofilm formation by fungal phytopathogens provides the scientific framework for designing and adapting methods and concepts developed by biofilm research that could be integrated in IPM practices. In this perspective paper, we provide evidence to support the view that the biofilm lifestyle plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of plant diseases. We describe the main factors limiting the durability of single-site fungicides, and we assemble the current knowledge on pesticide resistance in the specific context of the biofilm lifestyle. Finally, we illustrate the potential of antibiofilm compounds at sub-lethal concentrations for the development of an innovative, eco-sustainable strategy to counteract phytopathogenic fungi. Such fungicide-free solutions will be instrumental in reducing disease severity, and will permit more prudent use of fungicides decreasing thus the selection of resistant forms and safeguarding the environment.
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spelling pubmed-53900242017-04-27 Fungal Biofilms: Targets for the Development of Novel Strategies in Plant Disease Management Villa, Federica Cappitelli, Francesca Cortesi, Paolo Kunova, Andrea Front Microbiol Microbiology The global food supply has been facing increasing challenges during the first decades of the 21(st) century. Disease in plants is an important constraint to worldwide crop production, accounting for 20–40% of its annual harvest loss. Although the use of resistant varieties, good water management and agronomic practices are valid management tools in counteracting plant diseases, there are still many pathosystems where fungicides are widely used for disease management. However, restrictive regulations and increasing concern regarding the risk to human health and the environment, along with the incidence of fungicide resistance, have discouraged their use and have prompted for a search for new efficient, ecologically friendly and sustainable disease management strategies. The recent evidence of biofilm formation by fungal phytopathogens provides the scientific framework for designing and adapting methods and concepts developed by biofilm research that could be integrated in IPM practices. In this perspective paper, we provide evidence to support the view that the biofilm lifestyle plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of plant diseases. We describe the main factors limiting the durability of single-site fungicides, and we assemble the current knowledge on pesticide resistance in the specific context of the biofilm lifestyle. Finally, we illustrate the potential of antibiofilm compounds at sub-lethal concentrations for the development of an innovative, eco-sustainable strategy to counteract phytopathogenic fungi. Such fungicide-free solutions will be instrumental in reducing disease severity, and will permit more prudent use of fungicides decreasing thus the selection of resistant forms and safeguarding the environment. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC5390024/ /pubmed/28450858 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00654 Text en Copyright © 2017 Villa, Cappitelli, Cortesi and Kunova. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Villa, Federica
Cappitelli, Francesca
Cortesi, Paolo
Kunova, Andrea
Fungal Biofilms: Targets for the Development of Novel Strategies in Plant Disease Management
title Fungal Biofilms: Targets for the Development of Novel Strategies in Plant Disease Management
title_full Fungal Biofilms: Targets for the Development of Novel Strategies in Plant Disease Management
title_fullStr Fungal Biofilms: Targets for the Development of Novel Strategies in Plant Disease Management
title_full_unstemmed Fungal Biofilms: Targets for the Development of Novel Strategies in Plant Disease Management
title_short Fungal Biofilms: Targets for the Development of Novel Strategies in Plant Disease Management
title_sort fungal biofilms: targets for the development of novel strategies in plant disease management
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5390024/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28450858
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00654
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