ABSTRACT
The growing human population worldwide, declines in land and water availability, and challenging climatic changes are problematic factors in global food production (Ronald, 2011). However, the major limiting factor in agricultural food production is plant diseases (Balogh et al., 2010). Plant diseases caused by bacteria are a major commercial burden to agricultural production. Bacteria are present in plants as epiphytics or endophytics. Plant pathogenic bacteria colonization and suppression of plants result in the formation of plant diseases (Mukhtar et al., 2010). Phyllosphere bacteria in particular can promote plant growth and both suppress and stimulate the colonization and infection of tissues by plant pathogens (Rasche et al., 2006). The impacts of bacterial plant diseases are reduced by a variety of approaches, which can be quantitative as well as qualitative, to improve food production (Frampton et al., 2012). Traditional disease control strategies involve the implementation of operating practices such as removal of infected plant tissue and appropriate disposal to stop the transmission of pathogens from one site to another.
