Microbial consortium in biological control: An explicit example of teamwork below ground

Biocontrol strategy has been approved as the most acceptable and sustainable approach to moderate the crop losses due to phytopathogens and pests. Though the screening of biocontrol agents (BCA) is done meticulously to select the best among the lot, still a single strain proves inept to fight the numerous opponents present below ground, around the plant system. Under natural conditions, microbes do live in harmony supporting two to several different genera together utilizing the available nutrients and thereby creating a team of beneficial cluster acting against their negative counterparts. This team of helpful microbes acting as a team to protect the plants from the pathogens is termed as “consortia”. Though there exist certain parameters to be kept in mind before designing an effective consortium against a particulartarget pathogenin a definitehabitat of thehost plant. Microbestolerant toenvironmental shock with longer shelf life and sustainability, possessing higher enzymatic activity with higher rate of metabolism along with being non-pathogenic to the host plant should be preferred which should incur lower cost of mass multiplication. Though the mechanisms of action remain the same as that for a single biocontrol agent, but in consortium the synergism between the microbes is the most essential character that calls for the higher rate of success in field, comprising different genera of BCA. The present review overviews the studies that have been carried out reporting the successful effects of applying microbial consortia against different phytopathogens and pests along with giving a brief account of the mechanisms undertaken by the BCAs to combat the same.