Antibiotics are low molecular microbial metabolites that have been used
since the 1950s to control bacterial diseases of high-value horticulture and ornamental
plants. Bactericidal and bacteriostatic antibiotics were used in agriculture. Although
antibiotics were produced primarily for the medical profession and their use was
limited by cost, some experiments were conducted soon after they were first produced
commercially to determine their effectiveness in the control of plant diseases. In
present days, streptomycin and oxytetracycline antibiotics are the most commonly used
bacterial disease management in plants. The effectiveness of antibiotics is influenced
by a number of factors including antibiotic concentration, method of application,
temperature and humidity in addition to host and pathogen factors. The prolonged
application of antibiotics in an inappropriate manner is triggering the problem of
antibiotic resistance depending on the modes of action, structures, and functional and
biochemical properties of antibiotics. A variety of antibiotic resistance mechanisms
were expressed in various genes present in pathogens which encode some specific
types of enzymes to alter antibiotics into being non-toxic. The main mechanisms of
antibiotic resistance were expressed in targeted pathogens by various means of
mutation, modification, and replacement of various genes and target sites of antibiotics.
The rational use of antibiotics is one of the key approaches to increasing the efficacy of
antibiotics and prevention of resistance in future for the bacterial disease management.
Keywords: Antimicrobial metabolites, Antibiotic resistance, Actinomycetes, Bactericidal antibiotics, Bacterial diseases, Streptomyces.