Molecular Pathogens, 2025, Vol.16, No.3, 111-120 http://microbescipublisher.com/index.php/mp 113 Ralstonia solanacearum has strong chemotaxis and motility. It can sense root secretions and actively swim to the roots for infection. It can be widely spread in the soil with the help of irrigation water, drainage ditches and agricultural operations (Ayana and Fininsa, 2023). In addition, the pathogen cycle in the greenhouse is highly cumulative, and poor drainage and high temperature promote the faster spread of pathogens, thus causing large-scale disease outbreaks. Figure 1 The major soil-borne diseases affecting tomatoes. These pathogens infect susceptible plant tissues or can enter through the roots, causing typical symptoms such as wilting, stunting, yellowing, and root galling. These symptoms can lead to premature defoliation and yield reduction. The diseases include BW caused by Ralstonia solanacearum (A), FW caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (B), VW caused by Verticillium dahliae (C), and GRKN caused by Meloidogyne enterolobii (D) (Adopted from Meshram and Adhikari, 2024) Crop rotation can effectively interrupt the reproduction cycle of pathogens and reduce their risk of persistent infection in the field, especially in the process of severing specific pathogen-host relationships and destroying their ecological adaptability (Zhou et al., 2023; Cai, 2024). The life history of Ralstonia solanacearum includes infection in the rhizosphere of plants, dormant survival in the soil, and multiple pathways of transmission through water bodies and agricultural activities. These characteristics make it extremely prone to outbreaks in facility cultivation and tropical open-field systems. Pathogens not only have chemotaxis and motility, but can also spread widely in the field with the help of water flow and plant debris, significantly increasing the difficulty of disease control (Figure 2). 3 Ecological Interference of Non-Host Plants on Pathogens 3.1 Host-pathogen specificity and niche competition One of the mechanisms by which non-host plants inhibit pathogens is based on the principle of "host specificity". In natural ecosystems, most soil-borne pathogens have a high degree of host selectivity, and some species, such as FOL and R. solanacearum, only show colonization and pathogenicity in the rhizosphere of specific crops (Ma et al., 2023). In the rhizosphere environment, non-host plants cannot provide suitable nutrient sources and biorecognition signals for pathogens, inhibiting their germination and infection, thereby weakening their population dominance (Hong et al., 2023).
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