Influence of Environment on the Biocontrol of Botrytis cinerea: A Systematic Literature Review

Grey mould, caused by Botrytis cinerea Pers. Fr. (teleomorph Botryotinia fuckeli- ana (de Bary) Whetzel), is a serious disease of many economically important crops including fruits, vegetables, and flowers. This pathogen causes considerable yield and quality losses in field production and storage worldwide (Jarvis 1977; Williamson et al. 2007). Control of the disease is difficult because B. cinerea has high genetic variability, a short life cycle, a high reproductive rate (Elad et al. 2007), and multiple infection pathways (Elmer and Michailides 2007). The pathogen is able to survive and sporulate as a saprophyte on necrotic tissue (Elad et al. 2007). For these reasons, farmers strongly rely on fungicides for the control of B. cinerea. Strict dependence on fungicides, however, is not sustainable for two main reasons. First, the public is increasingly concerned about the effects of chemicals on human health and the environment (Alavanja et al. 2004; Epstein 2014). Second, B. cinerea populations frequently develop resistance to fungicides (Leroux 2007), which is difficult to avoid with the current resistance-management strategies; these strategies are based mainly on the alternating or mixing of fungicides with different modes of action (Fernández-Ortuño et al. 2015, 2016)