Green Vaccination: Smart Plant Health Care for Human Welfare

Abstract

One of the twenty-first century’s greatest food security issues is increasing crop yield stability through the production of disease-resistant crops. Plants are constantly exposed to potentially pathogenic microbes present around them. Managing plant health is a major challenge to modern food production, and exacerbated by the lack of common ground among the various disciplines involved in disease control. Food production is highly dependent on the use of chemical to combat pathogens, in the absence of genetic resistance in crops. Given their efficacy, plant protection dependent on chemical substances has negative environmental effects and creates risks for the wider ecosystem. Reducing the food production’s reliance on chemical control is a key goal of plant pathology science. One of the main objectives of plant research in the twenty-first century is to improve our knowledge of the plant protection mechanism and uncover how pathogens exploit it to create crops with both long-lasting pathogen resistance and enhanced yields. Plants also developed a complex immune system designed to withstand pests and diseases. In addition to their innate immune system that regulates preprogrammed defensive reactions, plants may also increase their immune system’s sensitivity in response to selected environmental signals. This phenomenon is known as “defense priming.” Although defense priming seldom offers maximum security, its wide-spectrum efficacy, long-lasting longevity, and inherited from future generations make it attractive to integrated disease control. This article highlights the role of the plant defense priming in sustainable agriculture.