Bacteria

This chapter helps the readers to update current knowledge of the ecology of entomopathogenic bacteria, the use of new tools to examine their interactions with the environment, and factors affecting their distribution and abundance. It includes case studies on specific bacteria and looks at how bacterial ecology affects the use and impact of bacterial entomopathogens in microbial control. Transmission is one of the key factors determining successful continuance of a bacterial entomopathogen. Most bacteria infect their hosts through horizontal transmission. Entomopathogenic cells ingested during insect feeding cause infection, the pathogen multiples within the host, and new propagules are released to the environment to infect more hosts. Virulence is considered a measurable characteristic of the ability of the microbe to cause disease and is intended for within‐group or within‐species pathogen comparisons. Many plant pathogens can increase their virulence through a quorumsensing mechanism mediated by the level of N‐acyl homoserine lactone.