Biological control mitigates spread of vector-borne plant pathogens
Diseases caused by vector-borne plant pathogens cause adverse impacts on yield resilience, food security, and farmer livelihoods, which are bound to aggravate under global change. Biological control is routinely discounted as a mitigation strategy for plant diseases, partially due to scarce and inconclusive empirical support. Here, using curated field survey data for 58 persistently or semi-persistently transmitted pathogens, we employ a multi-method approach to assess the role of resident (i.e., naturally occurring) biological control agents in these pathosystems. Our meta-analyses show how in planta pathogen incidence is strongly affected by vector abundance and infectivity. Meanwhile, biological control agent density negatively affects vector abundance and slows vector population build-up. Together, these relationships suggest that biological control lessens pathogen incidence by reducing vector abundance, though a paucity of data impedes direct, empirical demonstration of this effect. In particular, bipartite (mainly vector × pathogen) interactions have only been uncovered under field conditions for less than half of focal pathosystems. More so, just 5 % of studies simultaneously reported pathogen, vector, and biological control agent densities. Our study contests the long-standing dogma that arthropod-vectored pathogens cannot be mitigated through biological control, and accentuates how observational or manipulative field studies are imperative to grasp its full potential. • Natural enemies (in-)directly reduce vector abundance and disease proliferation. • Early-season natural enemy populations slow vector population build-up. • Field data on tri-partite interactions are exceptionally sparse. • Biological control complements current disease mitigation strategies. • Interdisciplinary science, next generation tools and field studies are needed.
Authors
- Filomena C. Sta. Cruz
- Evie Adriani
- Yelitza C. Colmenárez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4146-5210)
- Paola Andrea Palmeros‐Suárez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5629-5990)
- Alberto Fereres (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6012-3270)
- Fathiya M. Khamis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9593-9525)
- Anne Le Ralec (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9570-231X)
- James Montoya‐Lerma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2122-1323)
- Ricardo Ramírez‐Romero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1310-0484)
- Claudia Marcela Cuellar-Palacios
- Maged Elkahky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0549-2687)
- Sacha Roudine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3953-3667)
- Ibtissem Ben Fekih (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4773-6686)
- Sanford D. Eigenbrode (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0054-8511)
- Jermaine D. Perier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1873-4523)
- Thomas Dubois (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4865-843X)
- Carolina Camargo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8958-9410)
- Márcio Martinello Sanches (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4680-8879)
- Carlos Vásquez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8214-3632)
- Yanhui Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6552-0248)
- Cécile Le Lann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3949-4066)
- Kris A. G. Wyckhuys (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0922-488X)
- Freddiewebb B. Signabon
- Frédéric Francis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7731-0849)
- Annabelle B. Albaytar
- Marie Joy B. Beltran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1060-7389)
- Joan van Baaren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8552-9645)
- Lizette Cicero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8486-5700)
- Ihsan Nurkomar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6710-3157)
- Khalid Haddi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2655-4365)
- Karen Muñoz-Cárdenas
- Lorena López (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3123-3715)
- David W. Crowder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3720-1581)
- Baoqian Lyu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8113-4412)
- Pengjun Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2020-1435)
- Francisco J. Sanchez-Garcia
- Yi Zou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1273-3662)
Institutions
- University of the Philippines Los Baños (PH)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Universidade Federal de Lavras (BR)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (IT)
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- University of Idaho (US)
- University of Liège (BE)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (KE)
- Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (BE)
- Institut Agro Rennes-Angers (FR)
- Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agrícolas y Pecuarias (MX)
- Ecosystèmes, Biodiversité, Evolution (FR)
- Institute of Plant Protection (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- Institut de Génétique, Environnement et Protection des Plantes (FR)
- State University of Gorontalo (ID)
- Centro de Investigación de la Caña de Azúcar de Colombia (CO)
- Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (CN)
- Washington State University (US)
- Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) (BR)
- Universidad del Valle (CO)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment
- Published
- 2025-04-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2025.109683
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Plant Virus Research Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.00