Surfactin: An Emerging Biocontrol Tool for Agriculture Sustainability

Abstract

The agricultural productivity is a serious concern to meet the ever-increasing demands of growing human population all over the world. Thus, to attain sustainable agriculture, without harming the environment, use of different green compounds is a prerequisite. This chapter highlights the use of surfactins as a biocontrol agent, which is an eco-friendly and cost-effective approach for managing plant diseases. Biosurfactants especially surfactin produced by Bacillus and Pseudomonas species can serve as green surfactants, and they exhibit wide biocontrol activity. Surfactins are eco-friendly and less toxic and thereby have several widespread applications in food, agriculture, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. Several rhizosphere and plant-associated microbes capable of producing surfactin play vital role in motility, signaling, and biofilm formation, indicating that biosurfactants (surfactins) direct plant-microbe interaction. In agriculture, surfactins can be used against plant pathogens as biocontrol agents and for increase in the bioavailability of nutrient for beneficial plant-associated microbes. Particularly, antifungal activity of surfactins and their role in surface colonization by pathogens and beneficial bacteria results in biocontrol activity. Therefore, exploring surfactins from bacterial isolates for applications in agriculture warrants a detailed research.