Plant viruses cause devastating diseases in many agriculture systems, being a serious threat for the provision of adequate nourishment to a continuous growing population. At the present, there are no chemical products that directly target the viruses, and their control rely mainly on preventive sanitary measures to reduce viral infections that, although important, have proved to be far from enough. The current most effective and sustainable solution is the use of virus-resistant varieties, but which require too much work and time to obtain. In the recent years, the versatile gene editing technology known as CRISPR/Cas has simplified the engineering of crops and has successfully been used for the development of viral resistant plants. CRISPR stands for ‘clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats’ and CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins, and is based on a natural adaptive immune system that most archaeal and some bacterial species present to defend themselves against invading bacteriophages. Plant viral resistance using CRISPR/Cas technology can been achieved either through manipulation of plant genome (plant-mediated resistance), by mutating host factors required for viral infection; or through manipulation of virus genome (virus-mediated resistance), for which CRISPR/Cas systems must specifically target and cleave viral DNA or RNA. Viruses present an efficient machinery and comprehensive genome structure and, in a different, beneficial perspective, they have been used as biotechnological tools in several areas such as medicine, materials industry, and agriculture with several purposes. Due to all this potential, it is not surprising that viruses have also been used as vectors for CRISPR technology; namely, to deliver CRISPR components into plants, a crucial step for the success of CRISPR technology. Here we discuss the basic principles of CRISPR/Cas technology, with a special focus on the advances of CRISPR/Cas to engineer plant resistance against DNA and RNA viruses. We also describe several strategies for the delivery of these systems into plant cells, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of the use of plant viruses as vectors. We conclude by discussing some of the constrains faced by the application of CRISPR/Cas technology in agriculture and future prospects.

The aims of this study were to isolate, identify and characterize culturable endophytic bacteria from chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) roots grown in different soils. In addition, the effects of rhizobial inoculation, soil and stress on the functionality of those culturable endophytic bacterial communities were also investigated. Phylogenetic analysis based on partial 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the endophytic bacteria isolated in this work belong to the phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, with Enterobacter and Pseudomonas being the most frequently observed genera. Production of indoleacetic acid and ammonia were the most widespread plant growth-promoting features, while antifungal activity was relatively rare among the isolates. Despite the fact that the majority of bacterial endophytes were salt- and Mn-tolerant, the isolates obtained from soil with Mn toxicity were generally more Mn-tolerant than those obtained from the same soil amended with dolomitic limestone. Several associations between an isolate’s genus and specific plant growth-promoting mechanisms were observed. The data suggest that soil strongly impacts the Mn tolerance of endophytic bacterial communities present in chickpea roots while rhizobial inoculation induces significant changes in terms of isolates’ plant growth-promoting abilities. In addition, this study also revealed chickpea-associated endophytic bacteria that could be exploited as sources with potential application in agriculture.

Tomato, one of the most cultivated and economically important vegetable crops throughout the world, is affected by a panoply of different pathogens that reduce yield and affect product quality. The study of tomato–pathogen system arises as an ideal system for better understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying disease resistance, offering an opportunity of improving yield and quality of the products. Among several genes already identified in tomato response to pathogens, we highlight those encoding the transcription factors (TFs). TFs act as transcriptional activators or repressors of gene expression and are involved in large-scale biological phenomena. They are key regulators of central components of plant innate immune system and basal defense in diverse biological processes, including defense responses to pathogens. Here, we present an overview of recent studies of tomato TFs regarding defense responses to biotic stresses. Hence, we focus on different families of TFs, selected for their abundance, importance, and availability of functionally well-characterized members in response to pathogen attack. Tomato TFs’ roles and possibilities related to their use for engineering pathogen resistance in tomato are presented. With this review, we intend to provide new insights into the regulation of tomato defense mechanisms against invading pathogens in view of plant breeding.

Grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) are the most widespread fungal diseases, affecting grapevines in all the major growing regions of the world, and their complete eradication is still not possible. Aiming to search alternatives to avoid the spread and high incidence of these diseases, the present work intended to molecularly identify the grapevine endophytic community, the phytopathogenic fungi associated with GTDs in vineyards within the Alentejo region, and to test potential antagonist microorganisms as biological control candidates against GTDs-associated fungi. Grapevine endophytic community showed a wide variety of fungi in GTDs’ asymptomatic and symptomatic plants, nine of them previously described as GTDs-associated fungi. GTDs prevalent fungi identified in symptomatic plants were Diaporthe sp., Neofusicoccum sp., and H. viticola. Almost all these fungi were also detected in asymptomatic plants, which shows the importance of investigating the interactions of fungal communities and confirms the need for early diagnosis of these diseases. Direct inhibition antagonism tests were performed among identified endophytes and GTDs phytopathogenic fungi, and all the endophyte fungi showed potential as biocontrol agents. Our findings suggest that endophytes are promising candidates for their use in biological control due to their antagonistic activity against the mycelia growth of some GTDs-associated fungi.