ABSTRACT
This chapter presents not only the well-documented Western research, but also the less stringently researched but pioneering efforts centered in Russia and China. Researchers in both of these countries plus the Western countries have played key roles in developing bacteria for plant disease management. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union introduced what were called “bacterial fertilizers". Western science was not without some early advances in finding bacteria active in suppression of seed and soil-borne diseases. Beginning about 1980 and continuing through the present, China through its Beijing Agricultural University has developed many yield-increasing bacteria that are presently being sold commercially. It is not unexpected that introduction of a single antagonistic strain of biocontrol bacteria to this environment has been unsuccessful, but there are some recent exceptions. Bacteria have been reported in almost all internal plant organs, with a long debate as to whether they were really there or if they were evidence of a poor sterile technique by the investigator.
