Search

Plants interact with microorganisms in the environment during all stages of their development and in most of their organs. These interactions can be either beneficial or detrimental for the plant and may be transient or long-term. In extreme cases, microorganisms become endoparastic or endophytic and permanently reside within a plant, while the host plant undergoes developmental reprogramming and produces new tissues or organs as a response to the invasion. Events at the cellular and molecular level following infection have been extensively described, however the mechanisms of how these microorganisms locate their plant hosts via chemotaxis remain largely unknown. In this review, we summarize recent findings concerning the signalling molecules that regulate chemotaxis of endoparasitic/endophytic bacteria, fungi, and nematodes. In particular, we will focus on the molecules secreted by plants that are most likely to act as guidance cues for microorganisms. These compounds are found in a wide range of plant species and show a variety of secondary effects. Interestingly, these compounds show different attraction potencies depending on the species of the invading organism, suggesting that cues perceived in the soil may be more complex than anticipated. However, what the cognate receptors are for these attractants, as well as the mechanism of how these attractants influence these organisms, remain important outstanding questions. Host-targeting marks the first step of plant-microorganism interactions, therefore understanding the signalling molecules involved in this step plays a key role in understanding these interactions as a whole.

World-wide crop loss caused by insect pest and nematode reaches critical level. In Korea, similar crop loss has been gradually augmented in the field and greenhouse due to continuous crop rotation. The current methods on controlling herbivorous insects and plant parasitic nematodes are mostly depended on agro-chemicals that have resulted additional side-effect including occurrence of resistant insects and nematodes, environmental contamination, and accumulation in human body. To overcome the pitfalls, microbe-based control method have been introduced and applied for several decades. Here, we revised biological control using by the bacteria, fungi, and virus in order to kill insect and nematode and to attenuate its virulence mechanism. The introduced microbes mainly secreted out the hydrolysing enzymes and toxic compounds to target host membrane or cell wall directly. Indirectly, the microbe-triggered plant innate immunity against insects and nematodes was also reported. In conclusion, we provide a new frontier of microbe-based environmentally friendly procedure and effective methods to manage insects and nematodes.