There are around 200 species of phytopathogenic bacteria and almost all of them are

parasites within the plant, on its surface, in plant debris or in the soil as saprophytes.
Dissemination of bacteria can be accomplished by several means. Some bacteria can
survive on inanimate objects, in water or inside insects. It is important to know the
survival characteristics of bacteria for effective management strategy and intervention in
dissemination. Some species have the ability to move short distances in water on their
own power by use of their flagella. Most bacteria, however, are disseminated by passive
agents such as air and insects, water and soil movement, and to a lesser degree by
humans, water and other animals. Infected seeds and transplants can also be a source of
inoculums. Most bacteria require a wound or natural opening (e.g. stomata, lenticels or
hydathodes) to gain entry into the host tissue and also require warm, moist conditions to
establish a colony. Windblown soil and sand will commonly cause wounds which can
facilitate bacterial infections. Bacteria only become active and cause problems when factors
are conducive for them to multiply. They are able to multiply quickly. Some factors
conducive to infection include: high humidity; crowding; poor air circulation; plant stress
caused by over-watering, under-watering, or irregular watering; poor soil health; and
deficient or excess nutrients.
Bacteria colonize a host by growing between the cells and absorbing the cells nutrients
that leak into intercellular space or grow within the vascular tissue of the plant.
Depending on the species of bacteria and the tissue infected they produce and release
enzymes that degrade cell walls, growth regulators that alter the plants normal growth,
toxins that degrade cell membranes and complex sugars that plug water conducting
tissue

Chemical control of bacterial diseases

One of the most common means of controlling plant diseases in the field, in the greenhouse, and, sometimes, in
storage is through the use of chemical compounds that are toxic to the pathogens. Such chemicals either inhibit
germination, growth, and multiplication of the pathogen or are outright lethal to the pathogen. Some chemicals
are broad-spectrum pesticides, i.e., they are toxic to all or most kinds of pathogens, whereas others affect only a
few or a single specific pathogen. About 60% of all the chemicals (mostly fungicides) used to control plant
diseases is applied to fruit and about 25% to vegetables Most of the chemicals are used to control diseases of
the foliage and of other aboveground parts of plants. Others are used to disinfest and/or protect from infection
seeds, tubers, and bulbs. Some are used to disinfest the soil, others to disinfest warehouses, to treat wounds, or
to protect stored fruit and vegetables from infection.

Methods of Application of Chemicals for Plant

Disease Control
Chemicals used to control plant diseases are applied
directly to plants or to the soil with the help of various
types of equipment .

Foliage Sprays and Dusts

Chemicals applied as sprays or dusts on the foliage of plants to control bacterial diseases.

Seed Treatment
Seeds, tubers, bulbs, and roots are often treated with chemicals to prevent their decay after planting or the
damping-off of young seedlings.
Soil Treatment
Volatile chemicals (fumigants) are often used to fumigate the soil before planting for reducing the inoculum
bacteria.

Treatment of Tree Wounds

Large pruning cuts and wounds made on the bark of branches and trunks accidentally or in the process of
removing infections of bacteria need to be protected from drying and from becoming ports of entry for new
pathogens. Drying of the margins of large tree wounds is usually prevented by painting them with
shellac or any commercial wound dressing.

Chemistry of Bactericidal Compounds use for controlling bacterial disease

6.1. Inorganic, Nonmetallic Compounds. E.g Sulforix

6.2. Inorganic and Organic Metal Compounds

6.2.1. Mercury Compounds .

6.2.2. Copper Compounds . e.g champion

6.3. Dithiocarbonates and Dithiocarbamates . e.g ferbam

6.4. Alcohols and Other Aliphatic Compounds

6.5. Aromatic Compounds . e.gPCNB

6.6.1. Heterocyclics Containing Nitrogen . e.g captan

6.7. Antibiotics. E.g kasumin.

Mechanisms of Action of Chemicals Used to

Control Plant Diseases
The complete mechanisms by which the various chemicals applied to plants control plant
diseases are as
yet unknown for most of the chemicals. Some of the chemicals, e.g., fosetyl-Al, seem to
reduce infection by
increasing the resistance of the host to the pathogen, but how they do that is not clear.
The majority of chemicals are used for their toxicity directly to the pathogen and are effective
as protectants
at the points of entry of the pathogens or they act systemically through the plant. Such
chemicals act by
inhibiting the ability of the pathogen to synthesize certain of its cell wall substances; by
acting as solvents
of, or otherwise damaging, the cell membranes of the pathogen; by forming complexes with,
and thus inactivating, certain essential coenzymes of the pathogen; or by inactivating
enzymes and causing general precipitation of proteins of the pathogen. For example, sulphur
interferes with electron transport along the cytochrome system of fungi, thereby depriving the
cell of energy.
Sulfur is reduced to hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which is toxic to most cellular proteins and may
contribute to
killing the cell. Copper ion (Cu2+) is toxic to all cells because it reacts with sulfhydryl (—
SH) groups of
certain amino acids and causes denaturation of proteins and enzymes. Many organic
fungicides also are toxic
because they inactivate proteins and enzymes through reaction with their —SH groups. For
example, the
dithiocarbamates and ethazol, when taken up by fungal cells, release thiocarbonyl (—NKC—
S), which binds
irreversibly with and inactivates —SH groups. Similarly, the chlorinated aromatic and
heterocyclic compounds,
such as PCNB, chlorothalonil, chloroneb, captan, and vinclozolin, react with —NH2 and —SH groups
and
inactivate enzymes that have such groups. Systemic fungicides and antibiotics are absorbed by
the host, are translocated internally through the plant,
and are effective against the pathogen at the infection
locus both before and after infection has become established. Chemicals that can cure plants from infections
that have already become established are called
chemotherapeutants, and control of plant diseases with
such chemicals is called chemotherapy

Antibiotic used for control of bacterial diseases

Antibiotics
Antibiotics are substances produced by one microorganism and toxic to another
microorganism. Most antibiotics known to date are products of branching
bacteria, such as Streptomyces, and some fungi, e.g., Penicillium, and are toxic mostly to
bacteria, including fastidious bacteria, mollicutes, and also certain fungi. Chemical formulas
of most antibiotics are complex and are not, as a rule, related to one another. Antibiotics used
for plant disease control are generally absorbed and translocated systemically by the plant to
a limited extent. Antibiotics may control plant diseases by acting
on the bacteria or on the host. In many cases, the application of antibiotics to control bacterial
plant diseases has led to the development of bacterial strains resistant to the antibiotic.
Generally, only a few antibiotics are available for plant disease control.
Among the most important antibiotics in plant disease control are streptomycin, tetracyclines,
and cycloheximide. Streptomycin is produced by the actinomycete Streptomyces griseus. It
binds to bacterial ribosomes and prevents protein synthesis. Streptomycin or streptomycin
sulfate is sold as Agrimycin and Phytomycin and as a spray shows activity against a broad
range of bacterial plant pathogens causing spots, blights, and rots. Streptomycin has also been
used as a soil drench, e.g., in the control of geranium foot rot caused by Xanthomonas sp., as
a dip for potato tuber pieces used for seed against various bacterial rots of tubers, and as a
seed disinfectant against bacterial pathogens of beans, cotton, crucifers, and cereals.
Tetracyclines are antibiotics produced by various species of Streptomyces and are active
against many bacteria and against all mollicutes. Tetracyclines also bind to bacterial
ribosomes and inhibit protein synthesis. Of the tetracyclines, Terramycin (oxytetracyline),
Aureomycin (chlortetracycline), and Achromycin (tetracycline) have been used to some
extent for plant disease control. Oxytetracycline is often used with streptomycin in the control
of fire blight of pome fruits during blossoming .When injected into trees infected
with mollicutes or fastidious bacteria, tetracyclines stop the development of the disease and
induce the remission of symptoms, i.e., the symptoms disappear and the trees resume growth
as long as some tetracycline is present in the trees. Usually one injection at the end of the
growing season is sufficient for normal growth of the tree during the following season.
Several more antibacterial and antifungal antibiotics are used in Japan and some other
countries in Asia. Of these the most common are blasticidin, kasugamycin and polyoxin, used
against rice blast and many other leaf, stem, and fruit spots.
Strobilurins were first isolated from a and as such could be classified as acidic electrolyzed
oxidizing (EO) water. Such water is obtained by passing an electric current through a dilute
salt solution, separating the charged products, and collecting the anode water, which is
bactericidal and fungicidal due to the combined effect of low pH, high oxidation–reduction
potential, and the presence in it of hypochlorous acid. EO water can be mixed with several
fungicides and insecticides without losing its potency against pathogens. Research on this
product is continuing.

Management of Bacterial Diseases with Copper

and Antibiotics and the Evolution of Resistance
The potential for the chemical management of individual bacterial diseases has been
largely driven by factors such as the availability of effective modes of action, the
opportunity to access the pathogen on plant surfaces, the susceptibility of the
pathogen to the specific chemical, the economic value of the crop threatened and
the market potential of the use of the chemical from an industrial perspective.
Compared with fungicides, for example, relatively few chemicals targeting plant
bacterial diseases have been marketed. Probably the most important reason for this
is that the best antibacterial compounds available are antibiotics, and almost all
antibiotics historically have been developed for use in clinical medicine and not for
plant agriculture.

Initial forays into the chemical management of bacterial diseases focused on a

‘kitchen sink’ approach, involving the testing of a wide range of available compounds
against a wide range of diseases .From these types of study, copper compounds
(introduced in the 1880s) and the antibiotic streptomycin (1950s) proved to be the
most efficacious, and have been the most commonly used bactericide spray
treatments for bacterial disease management on plants, mainly
targeting Pseudomonas spp., Xanthomonasspp. and E. amylovora . Although, in
general, these bactericides have been relatively successful disease management
tools, the use of both copper and streptomycin has been impacted by the evolution
of resistance in populations of plant .The extensive use of copper and antibiotic
sprays over multiple years and/or the use of high numbers of applications within
individual seasons is correlated with the selection of resistance in pathogen
populations. In addition, in the majority of cases, resistance has evolved as a result
of the acquisition of genes encoding resistance determinants, thus also implicating
non‐target microbiota in the horizontal transmission of resistance determinants within
agricultural ecosystems. We now know that horizontal gene transfer, a mechanism
for the acquisition of resistance determinants by bacteria even from phylogenetically
distinct species, has driven the antibiotic resistance crisis currently affecting the
human .The linkage of disparate ecosystems on a global scale is also apparent
when we consider the breadth of geographical locations and bacterial species
harbouring identical antibiotic resistance. The inclusion of plant pathogens and other
populations of plant‐associated bacteria in this globally connected ecosystem also
became apparent when the genetic determinants of resistance to copper and
streptomycin were revealed (discussed below).

Copper resistance is encoded by a copper‐inducible operon (copABCD) in P.

syringae pv. tomato and by related variants in other P.
syringae pathovars, Xanthomonas campestris pv. juglandis and in the citrus
pathogens Xanthomonas citri ssp. citri and Xanthomonas alfalfae ssp. citrumelonis ).
Horizontal gene transfer has been implicated in the transfer of copper resistance
genes, usually via the conjugation of copper resistance plasmids; evidence of
genetic exchange at a global level exists in Xanthomonas spp. In E. amylovora, the
first instances of streptomycin resistance were conferred by a chromosomal mutation
altering the ribosomal protein target of the antibiotic More recent analyses of
streptomycin resistance in E. amylovora, P. syringae and X.
campestris pv. vesicatoria have shown that resistance is conferred by
the strAB genes, which encode aminoglycoside phosphotransferase enzymes that
modify streptomycin to a non‐toxic form. Of significance, in all reported cases among
these different pathogen genera isolated on several continents, the strAB genes are
located on the transposon Tn5393 and related variants that differ only in the
presence of the insertion sequences IS1133 or IS6100, which provide promoters for
the expression of strAB . Streptomycin, discovered in 1944, represents one of the
longest and most widely utilized antibiotics in human history (administered to control
diseases of humans, animals and plants, and also used in animals for growth
promotion). The world‐wide distribution of strAB genes in an ever‐growing number of
bacterial genera from disparate habitats illustrates the tremendous capacity and
breadth of horizontal gene transfer in bacterial populations as a mechanism to
disseminate ecologically useful traits .
A few additional antibiotics have been used as alternatives to streptomycin either
because of resistance or in some pathosystems in which streptomycin is not
effective. Oxytetracycline has been used on pome fruit trees to control fire blight (E.
amylovora) in the USA and Mexico, on peach and nectarine targeting bacterial spot
(Xanthomonas arboricolapv. pruni) in the USA, and on vegetable crops
targeting Pseudomonas spp. and Xanthomonasspp. in Latin American countries.
Gentamicin has been used in Latin American countries to control fire blight and
various vegetable diseases, and oxilinic acid has been used in Israel to control fire
blight In these cases, gentamicin‐resistant bacteria were recovered from lettuce in
Costa Rica, and oxolinic acid resistance in E. amylovora was detected in Israel 1–3
years after its. More recently, kasugamycin has been registered for use in the USA
to target fire blight, especially in orchards containing streptomycin‐resistant E.
Amylovora was used in European Union countries for more than three decades until
antibiotic use was banned in 2007, and has been used in Japan as a seed treatment
for bacterial diseases. Kasugamycin does not have any applications outside of these
plant agricultural uses and does not appear to be as broad spectrum as
streptomycin. However, the use of antibiotics has generally been discouraged or is
not allowed in some regions of the world because of the potential impact of antibiotic
use on the transfer of antibiotic resistance into clinical pathogens. In addition,
experience with horizontal gene transfer and the acquisition of streptomycin
resistance genes by plant pathogens in many ecosystems suggests that antibiotic
resistance evolution is an eventuality with any new antibiotic deployed. Thus, the
main reality of using antibiotics for crop diseases is that any strategy that selects for
resistance in the target pathogen is not sustainable.

Inshort, we can say that most of plant bacterial diseases are controlled by numerous
chemicals , which is easily avalible to the farmers ,giving good results but on other
hand if proper attenstion is not given to other techniques for controlling plant
diseases and repeated chemical control is reatained it will lead to produce resistant
in plant bacteria aginst these diseseas. So it ai intense need to control diseses on
gentic basais.