Fundamentals of Plant Pathology

PP 102
Workbook

Asmita Sirari
 Chapter 1

Plant Pathology- concepts, terms, scope, objectives, causes and importance

Plant Pathology/Phytopathology: (Phyton= plant, Pathos=suffering,ailment, Logos=study /

discourse/knowledge) ie., the study of suffering/ailments of plants. It is a branch of
Agricultural science which deals with cause, etiology, resulting losses and management of
plant diseases.

Box 1: Plant pathology is the study of the organisms and of the environmental factors that cause disease in
plants; of the mechanisms by which these factors induce disease in plants; and of the methods of preventing
or controlling disease and reducing the damage it causes. Plant pathology is for plants largely what medicine
is for humans and veterinary medicine is for animals. Each discipline studies the causes, mechanisms, and
control of diseases affecting the organisms with which it deals,i.e., plants, humans, and animals, respectively.
Plant pathology is an integrative science and profession that uses and combines the basic knowledge of
botany, mycology, bacteriology, virology, nematology, plant anatomy, plant physiology, genetics, molecular
biology and genetic engineering, biochemistry, horticulture, agronomy, tissue culture, soil science, forestry,
chemistry, physics, meteorology, and many other branches of science. Plant pathology profits from advances
in any one of these sciences, and many advances in other sciences have been made in attempts to solve plant
pathological problems. As a science, plant pathology tries to increase our knowledge about plant diseases. At
the same time, plant pathology tries to develop methods, equipment, and materials through which plant
diseases can be avoided or controlled.

Pathogen : It is an entity, usually a micro organism that can incite disease in susceptible
plants. It is also referred to as incitant, causal agent or causal organism.

Plant Disease: (dis-ease ie.,not at ease): Any malfunctioning of host cells and tissues that
results from continuous irritation by a pathogenic agent and leads to development of
symptoms.

Symptoms: External or internal reactions or alterations of a plant as a result of disease.

Box 1: Plants make up the majority of the earth’s living environment as trees, grass, flowers, and so
on. Directly or indirectly, plants also make up all the food on which humans and all animals depend.
Even the meat, milk, and eggs that we and other carnivores eat come from animals that themselves
depend on plants for their food. Plants are the only higher organisms that can convert the energy of
sunlight into stored, usable chemical energy in carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. All animals,
including humans, depend on these plant substances for survival. Plants, whether cultivated or wild,
grow and produce well as long as the soil provides them with sufficient nutrients and moisture,
sufficient light reaches their leaves, and the temperature remains within a certain “normal” range.
Plants, however, also get sick. Sick plants grow and produce poorly, they exhibit various types of
symptoms, and, often, parts of plants or whole plants die. The agents that cause disease in plants are
the same or very similar to those causing disease in humans and animals.

Important Phytopathogenic organisms :

[Link]
[Link]
[Link] vascular bacteria (RLO’s)
[Link] (phytoplasma and spiroplasma)
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link] protozoans .

[Link]: Fungi are eukaryotic, spore bearing, achlorophyllous organisms that generally
reproduce sexually and asexually and whose filamentous, branched somatic structures are
typically surrounded by cell walls consisting chitin or cellulose or both with many organic
molecules

[Link]: Bacteria are extremely minute, rigid, essentially unicellular organisms free of
true chlorophyll and generally devoid of any photosynthetic pigment, most commonly
multiplying asexually by simple transverse fission, the resulting cell,being of equal or nearly
equal in size.

[Link] vascular bacteria (RLO‘s). Fastidious vascular bacteria are similarto bacteria
in most respects but are obligate parasites or can not be grown on routene bacteriological
media.

[Link] (phytoplasma and spiroplasma) :

Phytoplasma : Phytoplasmas are pleomorphic, wall less prokaryotic micro organisms, that
can infect plants and can not yet to be grown in culture.

Spiroplasma : Spiroplasmas are helical, wall less prokaryotic micro organisms that are
present in phloem of diseased plants, often helical in culture and are thought to be a kind of
mycoplasma and can be cultured on artificial medium.

5. Virus: A sub-microscopic, obligate parasite consisting of nucleic acid and protein that
multiplies only intracellularly and is potentially pathogenic.

6. Viroids: Small, low molecular weight ribonucleic acids(RNA) that can infect plant cells,
replicate themselves and cause disease in plants.

[Link]: Algae are eukaryotic, photosynthetic, uni or multicellular organisms, containing

chlorophyll and a few algae mainly green algae cause plant diseases.

[Link] protozoans :Protozoa are microscopic,nonphotosynthetic,eukaryotic,flagellate

motile,single celled animals.

Types of Plant Diseases

Tens of thousands of diseases affect cultivated and wild plants. On average, each kind of crop
plant can be affected by a hundred or more plant diseases. Some pathogens affect only one
variety of a plant. Other pathogens affect several dozen or even hundreds of species of plants.
Plant diseases are sometimes grouped according to the symptoms they cause:
Root rots

Wilts

Leaf spots

Blights

Rusts

Smuts

Plant diseases are sometimes grouped according to the plant parts they affect:

Root diseases,

Stem diseases,

Foliage diseases

Plant diseases are sometimes grouped according to the types of plants affected:

Field crop diseases

Vegetable diseases

Plantation crop diseases

One useful criterion for grouping diseases is the type of pathogen that causes the disease. The
advantage of such a grouping is that it indicates the cause of the disease, which immediately
suggests the development and spread of the disease and also possible control measures. On
this basis, plant diseases are classified as follows:

I. Infectious, or biotic, plant diseases

1. Diseases caused by fungi
2. Diseases caused by prokaryotes (bacteria and mollicutes)
3. Diseases caused by parasitic higher plants and green algae
4. Diseases caused by viruses and viroids
5. Diseases caused by nematodes
6. Diseases caused by protozoa

II. Noninfectious, or abiotic, plant diseases

1. Diseases caused by too low or too high temperature
2. Diseases caused by lack or excess of soil moisture
3. Diseases caused by lack or excess of light
4. Diseases caused by lack of oxygen
5. Diseases caused by air pollution
6. Diseases caused by nutrient deficiencies
7. Diseases caused by mineral toxicities
8. Diseases caused by soil acidity or alkalinity (pH)
9. Diseases caused by toxicity of pesticides
10. Diseases caused by improper cultural practices

Disease: Any malfunctioning of host cells and tissues that result from continuous irritation by
a pathogenic agent or environmental factor and leads to development of symptoms
([Link], 1997). Pathogens bring about these irritating processes through different but
inter-related pathways
1. by utilizing the host cell contents,
2. by causing death of cells or by interfering with their metabolic activities through their
enzymes, toxins and growth regulators,
3. by weakening of tissues due to continuous loss of nutrients, and
4. by interfering with translocation of food, minerals and water.

A diseased plant fails to perform one of the physiological activities of a healthy plant.
The effect of a disease on functioning of an organ depends on which cells or tissues were first
attacked by the pathogen. For example, rotting of root tissues will affect the absorption of
water and minerals from soil and if vascular tissues have been affected, the translocation of
water and photosynthates will be stopped or reduced. If leaf tissues are attacked by a
pathogen, photosynthesis is affected and plant suffers from deficiency of carbohydrates
essential for supplying energy for other activities. Thus, disease can be defined as
malfunctioning process that is caused by continuous irritation by a pathogen (Dimond, 1959).

What are different physiological activities of a healthy plant?