title: Bacteriocins active against plant pathogenic bacteria.
abstract: Gram-negative phytopathogens cause significant losses in a diverse range of economically important crop plants. The effectiveness of traditional countermeasures, such as the breeding and introduction of resistant cultivars, is often limited by the dearth of available sources of genetic resistance. An alternative strategy to reduce loss to specific bacterial phytopathogens is to use narrow-spectrum protein antibiotics such as colicin-like bacteriocins as biocontrol agents. A number of colicin-like bacteriocins active against phytopathogenic bacteria have been described previously as have strategies for their application to biocontrol. In the present paper, we discuss these strategies and our own recent work on the identification and characterization of candidate bacteriocins and how these potent and selective antimicrobial agents can be effectively applied to the control of economically important plant disease.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8AT, UK.
authors.forename: Rhys
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Grinter
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Milner
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D003087:Colicins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology*; D003460:Crystallization; D005288:Ferredoxins / Q000737:chemistry; D006090:Gram-Negative Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D001430:Bacteriocins; D003087:Colicins; D005288:Ferredoxins; D010940:Plant Proteins