Research Progress of Bacteriophages Infecting Ralstonia Solanacearum

Bacterial wilt is a destructive disease caused by Ralstonia solanacearum and it is distributed in many countries of the world. This disease commonly occurrs in many plants, such as tobacco, eggplant and tomato, etc. Traditional methods, such as using chemicals, crop rotation, planting disease-resistant variety and regulating seedling transportation are not fully effective in controlling this plant disease. Therefore, to exploit an alternative newly and highly effective control method, the phage therapy was highlighted in recent years. Historically, the study of using bacteriophages to control bacterial diseases in human and plants can be dated back to the beginning of the last century;however, with the development and wide application of antibiotics, the phage therapy was neglected for a long times. Recently, with the appearance of drug-resistant bacteria and superbacteria, the study of using phage therapy to control bacterial diseases has been paid much attention. In this paper, we briefly reviewed the initial and revival research history of phages, the method of isolation, taxonomy and potential application of phages infecting Ralstonia solanacearum. Finally, several problems and future research tendencies of phage therapy were also pointed out.