Disease suppression in plants: A perspective on the impact of phage-directed soil fertilization in enhancing soil health and sustainability

Soil-dwelling phages have enormous biocontrol potentials and very little has been documented on the use of phages to enhance soil fertilization with the aim of achieving sustainable plant protection and crop yield. To the best of our knowledge, previous reports on phage therapy and phage biocontrol of plant-related diseases do not focus on assessing the potential of phages in manipulating microbial communities in soils through the application of organic fertilizer. Key methods that have been used to control plant pathogens comprise the foliar application of phages and soil drenching. However, these approaches provide limited biocontrol results. Phage introduction into the soil via soil drench is limited by phage adsorption to clay particles and foliar application potency is impaired by UV radiation inactivation of the phages. This review provides a critical perspective on the sustainability of manipulating physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil through phage-directed fertilization with the aim of increasing phage abundance, infectivity, and survival within different soil environments.