Bacillus lipopeptide-based antifungal agents for plant disease control

Plant diseases need to be controlled as they hamper the ecosystem by affecting the quality and availability of food, feed, crops, and fiber produced by plants and farmers worldwide. Different methods and approaches are unraveled to prevent and control plant diseases. In agricultural practice, fungal diseases are the most common crop-devastating disease. The antifungal resistance developed in the crops, their quality degradation, and environmental toxicity caused by present conventional/ chemical fungicides prompt the need for new antifungal agents that are considered safe and less toxic. Therefore, researches are focused on finding new alternatives to address the same by finding several derivatives of synthetic pesticides, mixing two or more pesticides, formulating biological originated pesticides, and so on to control/prevent pests and pathogens causing plant diseases. These alternative solutions are referred to as biological controls. A novel biocontrol agent, lipopeptides, produced by microbes possesses peculiar and outstanding properties that show the ability to work against harmful fungi and yeast, which helps in various disease controls in plants. Among various strains, Bacillus subtilis and other Bacillus species gained attention due to their exceptional properties. Bacillus strains have been identified to produce metabolites that serve as antifungal, antimicrobial, and antiviral agents; in addition, these bacterial species improve plants and their products by promoting the plant growth mechanism. Encapsulating all the features in one go, Bacillus species have gained importance to be used in the agricultural sector as a biocontrol agent.