Botrytis
cinerea, a broad host-range necrotrophic
(BHN) phytopathogen, establishes compatible interactions with hosts
by deploying multigene infection strategies, rendering simply inherited
resistance ineffective to fight off this pathogen. Since essential
oils (EOs) serve as intermediators during phytobiome communication,
we hypothesize that they have the potential to enhance the quantitative
disease resistance against BHN by eliciting the adaptive stress response
(hormesis) in plants. However, using EOs is challenging due to their
poor solubility in water. Nanoemulsification of EOs enhances not only
the solubility of EOs but also their potency and stability. Here,
we demonstrate the potential use of essential oil nanoemulsions (EONEs)
to control infections caused by BHN. Using basic engineering principles
of nanocarrier design, we demonstrate the efficacy of a robust EONEs
design for controlling B. cinerea infection in a
model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Our nanoemulsion
delivery system significantly enhanced the disease resistance of the
host by reducing the necrotic area by up to 50% compared to untreated
plants. RNA-seq analysis indicated that successful treatments upregulated
autophagy, ROS scavenging, and activation of the jasmonic acid signaling
pathway.