Claire Prigent-Combaret & Bernard Dumas 
Biocontrol of Plant Disease 
Recent Advances and Prospects in Plant Protection

Faced with climate changes, pest pressure on plants is increasing and new pest complexes are appearing, for which plant protection solutions are not yet available. The reduction of anthropic pressure on agroecosystems requires a reduction in the use of chemical inputs and the promotion of biocontrol approaches.

In this book, we present new advances on plant disease management that are emerging from research outputs. The ability of biocontrol products to directly (e.g. production of antimicrobial peptides or quorum quenching activities by microorganisms, use of plant or agro-industrial by-products as biopesticides, etc.) or indirectly (e.g. via the increase of plant defense or plant growth pathways) protect plants against pathogens and pests is also considered.

We also address new strategies like the development of phage-based biocontrol products and those that consider the plant as a holobiont and plant microbiota as targets of biocontrol treatments. The important question of the current regulatory process needed to launch plant production products on the market is also addressed, such as methods to evaluate their environmental impact.

About the author

Claire Prigent-Combaret is a CNRS scientist working on the ecological and molecular mechanisms of plant growth promotion and plant disease control by root-associated bacteria. She is the head of the Rhizosphere group in the Microbial Ecology Laboratory at University of Lyon 1, France.

Bernard Dumas is a CNRS scientist working on plant immunity and microbial effectors. He is director of the Plant Science Laboratory (LRSV CNRS – Toulouse University, France) and coordinator of the Bio Plant Products laboratory, whose objective is to develop natural products for plant protection and stimulation.