Co-evolution of Pathogens, Mechanism Involved in Pathogenesis and Biocontrol of Plant Diseases: An Overview

Abstract

Plant pathogens pose a serious problem for global food security. More sustainable and reliable food production will be needed to support the human population for the upcoming years. To develop efficient, economic and environment friendly biocontrol measures, a deep understanding of diseases is required. The Phytopathology has four main objectives (i) etiology, (ii) pathogenesis, (iii) epidemiology and, (iv) control, which should be considered for an overall knowledge about a plant disease. Understanding of the plant response to the pathogen attack has advanced rapidly in recent years; still many plant diseases are unpredictable either due to emergence of new pathogenic strains or due to mutagenic changes in present strains, which cause a failure in all preventive measures. In this review, lacuna in present control measures and future requirements in disease management are discussed in the light of recent advances made in molecular mechanisms and components involved in pathogen defense in plants as well as how pathogens are continuously co-evolving. The complex picture of pathogen defense in plants is beginning to be unraveled but a lot more still remains unclear.