Bacteriophage Ecology and Plants.

Abstract

Introduction Plant biology cannot be fully appreciated absent microbial flora, and plant-associated bacteria are incompletely understood without an awareness of phage -the viruses of prokaryotes. Phage have been found in association with “buds, leaves, root nodules (leguminous plants), roots, rotting fruit, seeds, stems and straw; crown gall tumors... healthy or diseased alfalfa, barley, beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, buckwheat, clover, cotton, cucumber, lucerne, mulberry, oats peas, peach trees, radish, rutabaga, ryegrass, rye, timothy, tobacco, tomatoes, [and] wheat” (4). In this overview we consider the myriad ways that phage can impact ecologically on plant-associated bacteria.