PHYTOPATHOGENIC BACTERIA AN IMMINENT THREAT TO SUSTAINABLE FOOD PRODUCTION (HB 2026)

The field of Plant Bacteriology/Phytobacteriology is of great importance as it is rapidly changing and advancing due to recent advances in genomics and molecular plant bacteriology, as well as the global spread of bacterial plant diseases and the emergence of new bacterial plant pathogens. So, there is a need to integrate the understanding of bacterial taxonomy, genomics and basic plant bacteriology that reflects state-of-the-art knowledge about plant-disease mechanisms. In the present book, the first eight chapters contain general information about bacteria, the classification of plant pathogenic bacteria and the molecular mechanisms of virulence and pathogenesis of phytopathogenic bacteria. The ninth chapter of the book contains a description of 62 specific bacterial diseases of plants. Some of the described diseases, such as bacterial blight of rice, wilt of solanaceous plants, soft rot of fleshy fruits and vegetables, citrus canker, citrus huanglongbing etc., are of international importance and cause huge economic losses to mankind.

This volume

• Contains the latest, updated information on plant pathogenic bacteria as of December 2025.
• Presents the classification of the bacteria and associated nomenclature based on Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, 2nd edition and the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. Seventy-three genera of bacteria containing plant pathogenic species are described, and their plant pathogenic species are listed.
• Discusses practical and thoroughly tested disease management strategies that would help control the enormous losses caused by these diseases.
• Reviews the role of Type I-VI secretions and peptide- or protein-containing toxins produced by bacterial plant pathogens.
• Briefs about plants and plant products that act as carriers of human enteric bacterial pathogens, emphasizing, for example, the role of seed sprouts as a common vehicle in causing food-borne illness.

Dr B. S. Thind was Ex-Professor-cum-Head, Department of Plant Pathology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. He has 34 years of experience in teaching, research and transfer of technology in the subdiscipline of plant bacteriology. He has conducted research investigations on bacterial blight of rice, bacterial stalk rot of maize, bacterial blight of cowpea, bacterial leaf spot of green gram, bacterial spot of chillies and bacterial soft rot of potatoes. He also acted as Principal Investigator of two ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)-funded research schemes entitled, “Detection and control of phytopathogenic bacteria from cowpea and mungbean seeds” from 1981 to 1986 and “Perpetuation, variability and control of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, the causal agent of bacterial blight of rice” from 1989 to 1993, and also a DST-funded research scheme entitled “Biological control of bacterial blight, sheath blight, sheath rot and brown leaf spot of rice” from 1999 to 2002. He has also authored a manual entitled Plant Bacteriology and a textbook entitled Phytopathogenic Procaryotes and Plant Diseases, published by Scientific Publishers (India) in 2012 and another book, entitled Phytopathogenic Bacteria and Plant Diseases, published by CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group in 2019. He is a life member of the Indian Phytopathological Society, the Indian Society of Mycology and Plant Pathology, the Indian Science Congress and the Indian Society of Plant Pathologists.