Crop losses in agriculture are getting aggravated due to several abiotic and biotic factors including diseases caused by fungi, bacteria and viruses. Chemical fertilizers are applied to overcome which it is not a feasible method. Hence an alternative method should be found, to sought out the problems of using chemicals. Plant disease management using microbes is gaining interest recent days for replacing the chemicals. Among all, Streptomyces a gram-positive saprophytic bacterium stages a substantial role in combating plant diseases owing to its capability to induce or synthesis bioactive rich antimicrobial metabolites and enzymes. It is presumed that they are distributed wide in nature, but the rhizosphere region constitutes the most potential antibiotic producing organisms and are used as bio inoculant. Besides, it also increases the plant growth by producing plant growth promoting substances and suppress the disease through mechanism like antibiosis, mycoparasitism and nutrient competition; supplying of nutritive elements like iron, copper, phosphorus and sulphur; synthesis of plant hormones like IAA, cytokinin and siderophore. This review briefly illustrates about the role, mechanism, advantage and disadvantage of using Streptomyces spp. in plant disease management.

Highlights

• Actinobacteria are known antibiotic producers.
• They were effective against plant pathogens through various modes of action like mycoparasitism, competition, analysis and also through induction of defense proteins.
• Besides, they influence plant growth through production of growth hormones also.
• A collective documentation about the role of actinobacteria in plant growth and disease management is the need of researchers.