Abstract: Amid the growing global demand for sustainable agriculture and the urgent need to mitigate the adverse impacts of long-term chemical pesticide overuse, actinobacteria have garnered increasing attention as a pivotal microbial resource for integrated pest management, given their robust antagonistic potential against phytopathogens and versatile plant growth-promoting functions. Recent advances in rhizosphere microbial ecology have driven a transformative paradigm shift in actinobacteria-derived biocontrol product development: from the conventional industrial model of fermentative extraction and purification of single secondary antimicrobial metabolites to the direct application of viable actinobacterial cells (predominantly dormant spores or vegetative mycelia) as in situ biocontrol agents. This review presents a systematic and comprehensive synthesis of the global commercial registration status, regulatory frameworks, and field application advances of viable actinobacterial biocontrol products. We specifically profile the registration history, labeled biocontrol targets, and commercialization trajectories of the most widely adopted benchmark strains registered as microbial biopesticides in Europe and the U.S., including Streptomyces griseoviridis K61 and Streptomyces lydicus WYEC 108. Constrained by the stringent regulations governing pesticide registration, most commercialized viable actinomycetes in China are currently registered under the classification of "microbial fertilizers", giving rise to a microecological regulation model with Chinese characteristics. This model functions by reshaping soil microecology through the bioactive metabolites of these actinomycetes, regulating the community assembly and biological processes of soil harmful organisms, and ultimately fulfilling the objective of sustaining soil health. Furthermore, we delineate the harmonized and region-specific quality evaluation standards mandated by leading global regulatory bodies (e.g., U.S. EPA, EU EFSA), with a focus on core assessment dimensions: shelf-life viability retention, consecutive 5-batch full analysis, hazardous metabolite impurity profiling and control, and non-target organism ecotoxicology risk assessment. We also discuss the application of cutting-edge formulation technologies, including oil dispersion (OD) formulations and microencapsulation systems, in improving the abiotic stress resistance and storage stability of viable actinobacterial spores. Finally, we identify key future research priorities to address prevailing industrialization bottlenecks: decoding the ecological drivers that govern actinobacterial rhizosphere colonization in complex field environments, developing rationally designed synergistic synthetic microbial consortia, and advancing flexible, science-based regulatory frameworks tailored to the unique ecological attributes of living microbial products.

Key words: actinobacteria, biocontrol, Streptomyces, microbial pesticides, registration