The interaction between plants and microorganisms plays a major role in plant growth promotion and disease management. While most microorganisms directly influence plant health, some indirectly support growth through pest and disease suppression. Endophytic entomopathogenic fungi are diverse, easily localized, and have long-lasting effects on insect pests. When inhabiting plants, these fungi alter secondary metabolites, volatile organic compounds, and microbiomes, enhancing plant resistance to pests and diseases and sometimes improving growth. However, their persistence in plant systems may be challenged by the plant’s defense mechanisms or by human interventions such as insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and phyto-insecticides, which are common in agriculture. As effective biocontrol agents, endophytic entomopathogenic fungi can also be integrated with other pest management strategies like predators, parasitoids, and chemicals. This review will explore the impact of endophytic entomopathogens on plant systems and their compatibility with other management practices.

Tomatoes are one of the predominant vegetable crops grown throughout the year in Tamil Nadu, India. Their perishable nature and resource-intensive cultivation make them susceptible to biotic stress. The damage caused by invasive insect pests, bacterial wilt during the rainy season, and viral diseases are major yield-limiting factors, and the farmers mostly depend on calendar-based insecticide applications for insect pest and disease management in tomatoes. The desired tomato hybrids grafted onto bacterial wilt-resistant eggplant rootstocks offer protection against bacterial wilt during the rainy season. The integrated pest and disease management (IPDM) practices consist of resistant grafted tomato seedlings (wild eggplant rootstocks EG 203 and TS 03), bioinoculants (Bacillus subtilis + Trichoderma asperellum + Purpureocillium lilacinum), pheromone traps (Phthorimaea absoluta and Helicoverpa armigera), botanicals (azadirachtin), microbial pesticides (Bacillus thuringiensis, Metarhizium anisopliae, and Beauveria bassiana), and bio-rationals, which were evaluated in four locations in two major tomato-growing tracts of Tamil Nadu. The results revealed that the treatment EG 203 eggplant rootstock-grafted tomato along with IPDM practices performed better across all experimental locations than the other treatment combinations viz., TS 03 eggplant rootstock-grafted tomato + IPDM, tomato + IPDM, grafted tomato + farmers’ practice and tomato + farmers’ practice. The EG 203-grafted tomato recorded a higher yield than the farmers’ practice with significantly superior biometric parameters. The treatment of EG 203-grafted tomato and IPDM practices can be adopted for safer tomato production by enabling a reduction in pesticide applications while enhancing productivity.

The horticultural crops, including spices and plantation crops, are known for their enormous benefits, contributing to the country’s economy. However, Phytophthora, a genus of Oomycetes class, poses a threat to spice and plantation crops by infecting and damaging them, resulting in yield losses, economic hardship for farmers, and food security concerns, thereby threatening the sustainability of spice and plantation crops. Moreover, Phytophthora has greater adaptation systems in varying environmental conditions. Therefore, eradicating or controlling Phytophthora is a highly challenging process due to the longevity of its infective propagules in soil. Early detection and curative measures would be more effective in managing this destructive pathogen. Additionally, molecular detection using innovative methods such as polymerase chain reaction, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, recombinase polymerase amplification, and loop-mediated isothermal amplification would offer reliable and rapid detection. Furthermore, integrated disease management strategies, combining cultural, physical, chemical, and biological methods, would prove highly beneficial in managing Phytophthora infections in spices and plantation crops. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the diversity, symptomatology, pathogenicity, and impact of Phytophthora diseases on prominent spice and plantation crops. Finally, our review explores the current disease reduction strategies and suggests future research directions to address the threat posed by Phytophthora to spices and plantation crops.

Introduction: Root-knot disease in tomato, caused by Meloidogyne incognita, presents a major challenge to global tomato production. This study explored a sustainable management approach by evaluating host-plant resistance through grafting combined with bio-inputs in farmers’ fields with high natural infestations of M. incognita.Methods: The commercial F1 hybrid Shivam® tomato was grafted onto bacterial wilt-resistant eggplant rootstocks, EG 203 and TS 03. Two field experiments were conducted with six treatment groups to compare the performance of 'EG 203-tomato' and 'TS 03-tomato' grafts against the non-grafted hybrid tomato, both with and without bio-input applications. The bio-input protocol included soil application of neem cake (250 kg/ha) and soil and seedling drenching at nursery and transplant stages using biocontrol agents (Bacillus subtilis, Trichoderma asperellum, and Purpureocillium lilacinum, each at 5 g/L).Results: Results indicated that the 'EG 203-tomato' graft demonstrated strong resistance to M. incognita, while the 'TS 03-tomato' graft remained susceptible, akin to the non-grafted Shivam® hybrid. The EG 203-tomato graft treated with the bio-inputs achieved the highest suppression of M. incognita, with reductions of 76.8–77.7% juvenile populations in the soil, 62.0–66.1% in female populations within roots, 73.6–77.3% in egg masses per female, and 38.1–40.0% in eggs per egg mass. This treatment also resulted in the lowest root gall index, measured at 2.0–2.1.Discussion: In both trial locations, 'EG 203-tomato' graft plants enriched with bio-inputs outperformed the non-grafted tomato in growth and yield metrics, achieving greater plant height (54.6–54.7 cm), leaf count (81.3–84.3 per plant), branch count (3.1–3.7) and fruit yield (10.8–11.5 kg/plant). These findings support the recommendation of EG 203-tomato grafts with bio-input management as an effective large-scale strategy for tomato growers combating M. incognita infestations.