ABSTRACT
Microbes are crucial to plant life, and, therefore, to the successful production of produce as a commodity. Plant microbes can be beneficial as symbionts [1-3], competitors of plant pathogens for biocontrol [4,5], and for promoting plant growth [6-8]. Indeed, most of the fundamental knowledge of the biology, microbial ecology, and genetics of plants has been obtained as a result of studies to understand and prevent plant disease. However, plants also are vulnerable during growth to microbial pathogens from the environment (e.g., soil, water, air, amendments). The links between fresh produce/produce dishes with more than 300 outbreaks in the U.S. since 1990 [9,10], and the obvious vulnerability of preharvest produce to pathogens in the production environment, have stimulated similar basic studies of the biology of enteric pathogens on produce.
