Bacterial wilt (BW) of tomato caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is responsible for considerable damage to tomatoes and many other crops in tropical,subtropical and warm temperature regions of the world and also limits production of many crops, e.g., potato, tomato, eggplant and pepper.
Various strategies have been developed to control BW, including the use of hosteplant resistance and cropping system modifications, induced resistance ,biological control using vesicularearbuscular mycorrhiza (VAM), avirulent mutants of R. solanacearum,genetically engineered antagonistic bacteria , certain naturally occurring antagonistic rhizobacteria, such as Bacillus spp.
And Pseudomonas spp., and/or an integration of these strategies . None of these aforementioned strategies can alone reduce the incidence and/or severity of bacterial wilt (BW).
Hence, complete control or eradication of R. solanacearum still remains a dream of most researchers in regions where the pathogen is endemic.
Nevertheless, losses due to BW can be greatly reduced by following a holistic approach, often referred to as Integrated Pest Management (IPM), by employing multiple disease control strategies simultaneously.
For BW, all of the successful IPM packages include using pathogen-free planting material, planting less-susceptible host varieties, and rotating susceptible crops with those that are resistant or immune to BW.