Abstract
Botrytis cinerea is a phytopathogenic fungus responsible for economic losses from USD 10 to 100 billion worldwide. It affects more than 1400 plant species, thus becoming one of the main threats to the agriculture systems. The application of fungicides has for years been an efficient way to control this disease. However, fungicides have negative environmental consequences that have changed popular opinion and clarified the need for more sustainable solutions. Biopesticides are products formulated based on microorganisms (bacteria or fungi) with antifungal activity through various mechanisms. This review gathers the most important mechanisms of antifungal activities and the microorganisms that possess them. Among the different modes of action, there are included the production of diffusible molecules, both antimicrobial molecules and siderophores; production of volatile organic compounds; production of hydrolytic enzymes; and other mechanisms, such as the competition and induction of systemic resistance, triggering an interaction at different levels and inhibition based on complex systems for the production of molecules and regulation of crop biology. Such a variety of mechanisms results in a powerful weapon against B. cinerea; some of them have been tested and are already used in the agricultural production with satisfactory results.
Highlights
Agriculture is one of the main human activities at the economic level
Chemical pesticides have been the most useful solution to this problem; they come with negative environmental consequences that are rejected by the population
Biopesticides have been studied for the last few years, and they were proven to be an innovative solution. Their potential lies in the use of Plant Growth Promoting (PGP) microorganisms, which are known to possess different plant growth promotion and fungal biocontrol mechanisms, providing a wide variety of new sources for the development of biopesticides
Summary
Agriculture is one of the main human activities at the economic level. It supplies food for a human population that is estimated to grow to reach 9 billion people by 2050 [1,2]. Yeasts present some advantages over bacteria, such as their simple nutritional requirements, their ability to colonize dry surfaces for long periods of time, and their fast growth [63] They do not produce toxic metabolites; avoid negative environmental or toxicological impacts [64], unlike some bacteria [10,19]; and possess many different modes of action, including competition for nutrients and space, the production of toxins, enzyme secretion, the production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), parasitism, and the induction of systemic resistance [65]. We looked at the different mechanisms of action used for the biocontrol of the pathogen B. cinerea by both bacterial and fungal agents (Figure 1)
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