History of Plant Pathology - hillagric.ac.in
Transcript of History of Plant Pathology - hillagric.ac.in
History of Plant Pathology
Pl. Path. 111 (Cr. Hrs. 3+1)
P.N. Sharma
Department of Plant Pathology,
CSK HPKV, Palampur (H.P.)
Amos (about 750B.C.) was so
steeped in mysticism while
writing the Bible.
Romans created two Gods for
dreaded Rust – “Robigo and
Robigus”.
On 25th April – Robigalia - a special
holiday
Theophrastus (200 B.C.) observed
that plant disease were worse in
low spots than on high grounds
Ancient times
Albertus Magnus (1200 A.D.) conceived the idea that
mistletoe is a parasite, the breakthrough should have opened
whole new world to be conquered
From 1600 - 1800 Antony Van Leeuwenhoek (1675) –
Microscope
John Needham (1749) observed the appearance of organisms– concluded that microorganisms originated from meat.
Spallanzani boiled beef broth and sealed the flasks- no microbes appeared.
In 1725, Connecticut farmers- eradicated barberry and protected wheat from rust
Micheli (1729) Father of Mycology
Nova Plantarum Genera – described many new genera of fungi, their reproductive structures
Observed a second generation of spores when sown on sterile slices of melon
M. Tillet (1755) – inoculated wheat seeds with dust of smut, crop grew smutty. Beautiful experiment didn't convince the botanists
Prevost (1807) – Repeated the Tillet’s experiment and proved that bunt of wheat is caused by fungus, studied the germination of smut spores and their inhibition by adding CuSo4
Golden era (1800 – 1900)
Devastating epidemic,
the Late blight (1845) in
Ireland dramatized the
effect of plant diseases
on human suffering
besides stimulated
interest in their cause
and control
(1 million people died)
Plant Pathogens Anton de Bary (1831 – 1888) In 1853
established that rust and smuts are causes
not the results of disease, studied
development of many smut and rust fungus.
1874, Woronin - discovered a new type of
parasite on Crucifer & called Molds Later
named- Plasmodiophora brassicae
Thomas T.J. Burill (1880) – Fire blight of
apple and pear is caused by bacterium.
Adolf Mayer (1886) – infectious nature of sap
from tobacco mosaic infected plants, gave
term Mosaikrankheit means mosaic
M. W. Beijerinck (1898) – finally gave the term
virus named them as Contagium vivum fluidum
(Father of Virology)
Lafont in 1909; protozoa associated with
Euphorbia plants , later Stahel found flagellate
protozoa infecting the phloem of coffee trees
Plant Pathogens Needham (1743) in England found
association of nematodes with wheat galls
(Anguina tritici)
Doi et. al. (1967) – MLO (Phytoplasma) with
potato witches broom
T. O. Diener (1971) –Viroid associated with
PSTVd
Windsor and Black, 1972: Rickettsiae
Hoseloff and Symons (1982) – discovered
virusoids associated tobacco velvet mosaic
disease
Prions were proposed for the first time in
1972 by Prusiner (Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine in 1997)
Anton de bary (1831 – 1888) – the father of
plant pathology,
In 1853 he established that rust and smuts
are causes not the results of disease,
studied development of many smut and
rust
Debary’s students: Woronin, Brefeld, Millardet, Ward &
Farlow, Julius Gotthelf Kuhn.
In 1866, He published his Text book – Morphology and
Physiology of fungi, Lichens and Myxomycetes
In 1886 published Physiology of Parasitism - sclerotina;
rotting of vegetables
1861 Finally proved the cause of blight as Phytophthora
infestans by inoculating potato with sporangia
In 1865, reported Heteroecism in Uradinales
J. G. Kuhn (1858) published the book – Diseases of Cultivated Crops, their Causes and Control – first book in which fungi were regarded as the causal factors
Pasture (April 7th 1864) – irritated with spontaneous theory performed experiments that ended the arguments for all time
Robert Koch (1875) in 1887:
Koch’s postulates: Proof of
pathogenicity
Oscar Brefeld (1875,1883)
Pure culture Technique of Micro-org.
Also studied cereal smuts in detail
Downy mildew of grapes (1878 –
1885)
P. M.A. Millardet (1885) –
Bordeaux mixture
E.C. Stakman (1913) –
phenomenon of Physiological
specialization in rusts
HOST - PARASITE RELATIONSHIP
William Brown(1912) – Role of enzymes to disintegrate plant tissue
Tanaka (1933) – First toxin to be recognized from A. kikuchiana
Muller and Borger (1940) – coined term “Phytoalexin”and the theory in 1941
Meeham and Murphy (1947) - victorin from H. victoriae J. C. Walker(1931)– Biochemical basis of disease
resistance Waggoner (1953) – Coined the terms “phytotoxin” and
“pathotoxin” Van Loon (1985) – Isolated first pathogenesis related proteins (PR protein) Ross (1961) – Coined the term SAR, resistance that developed in the untreated portion of TMV inoculated plants
Robert Hartig (1839-1901) : worked on diseases of forest trees and crowned with title of “Father of Forest Pathology”
In 1874: book Important Diseases of Forest trees
In 1882: Text Book of Tree Diseases
Bacteriology
•Thomas T. Burill (1880) – Fire blight of apple and pear is caused by bacterium, Erwin F. Smith (father of bacteriology) • published bulletins – “ Wilt diseases of cotton,
Watermelon and cowpea” ( 1889)
• Panama disease, banana(1910)
• E. tracheiphilus and its transmission
• P. malvacearum
• Crown gall – relationship with human cancer (1907)
• Beergey’s Manual of determinative bacteriology
Viruses
Seventeenth century – “tulipomania”
Adolf Mayer (1886) – for the first time reported the infectious nature of the sap from tobacco mosaic infected plants and he gave the term Mosaikrankheit means mosaic
Ivanoviski (1892) – Sap retained infectivity even after filtration through chamberland, doubted toxin produced by bacterium
M. W. Beijerinck (1898) – finally gave the term virus named them as Contagium vivum fluidum (Father of Virology)
H. Purdy (1929) – Virus infected plants contained antigenic material,
opened new door in plant virology
W. M. Stanley (1935) – “Isolation of crystalline protein
possessing the properties of TMV” Shared Nobel prize 1946
Bawden and Pirie (1937) – reported the nucleoprotein
nature of TMV,
Kausche et. al., (1939) – First electron microscope
picture of TMV
Fukushi (1940) – Transovarial transmission of rice dwarf virus
Kassanis (1962) – coined the term Satellite virus, associated with
TNV
Harrison et.al.,(1970)
Classified the plant viruses into 16 groups (1971)
Coined the term Geminiviruses (1976)
Taylor and Robertson (1970)- Nematode
transmission
Kohler and Milstein (1975) – “ Hybridoma
technology” used in monoclonal antibody
production– Nobel prize in 1984
Clark and Adams (1977) ELISA in plant virus detection; developed DAS-ELISA
Symons & Keese (1982) – discovered virusoids
Powell-Abel et al (1986) – C.P. mediated resistance in TMV.
Disease Resistance Biffen (1905) – reported that resistance in two wheat
varieties to yellow rust was inherited in Mendelian fashion to its progeny.
Barrus (1911) showed genetic variability with in pathogen species i.e. different pathogen races are restricted to certain varieties of a host species.
Later in 1914 Stakman: established this phenomenon in wheat rust and showed that these races can be distinguished by their ability to infect different varieties with in a set of host differential varieties.
Flor (1946) – working with flax rust came with gene-for-gene hypothesis
Gauman (1946) gave the concept of hypersensitivity
Vanderplank (1963) – “vertical and horizontal resistance” ; book in 1963 “Plant Disease: Epidemics and Control”
Albersheim and Anderson (1975) – the first comprehensive model for gene for gene interaction “Surface carbohydrate elicitor receptor model”
Keen (1975) coined the term Elicitor Keen and Bruegger (1971) “ Elicitor
Receptor Model” Dixon et al (1996) – first cloned the Avr2
gene from tomato (Cladosporium fulvum) more than 20 Avr genes have been cloned since
Johal and Brigg (1992) – First cloned the resistance Hm1 gene from maize,
Genetics of the Host and the Pathogen
Plant disease control Millardet (1885) – Bordeaux mixture
Reihm (1913) – Uspulum for control of bunt. In 1913,
organic mercury compounds; later banned because of
their toxicity.
Tisdale and Williams (1934) – Dithiocarbamic acid
derivatives fungicides ( ferbam, zineb etc.)
Von-Schmeling and Marshal Kulka (1966) – 1st systemic fungicide- carboxin
New & Kerr (1972): 1st biological control of bacterial disease: Crown gall using avirulent strain of Agrobacterium radiobacter.
(Schuster et. al.1990,: Ruess et. al., 1995) Recently developed the Novel fungicides known as “plant activators”.
Rachel Carson (1962) – Silent Spring,
described the dangers of polluting
the environment
History of plant pathology in India Indian (Imperial) Agricultural institute at Pusa, Bihar (1905)
E. J. Butler- First Mycologist (Father of Indian Plant Pathology)
Book- Fungi and Diseases in Plants
Monograph on potato disease, wilt of cotton, rice, sugarcane diseases & cereal rusts
K.C. Mehta (1929) – monographic on annual recurrence of black stem rust of wheat
K.R.Kirtikar- 1st Indian to study fungi
Mitra (1931) - Karnal bunt on wheat
Luthra and Sattar (1934) – Solar heat treatment for loose smut
Bengal famine 1942 caused by Brown spot disease of rice
B.B. Mundkar (1948) - Indian Phytopathological society in 1947- Started Journal Indian Phytopathology in 1949; wrote a book -Fungi and Plant diseases
Dastur (1948) – described two new diseases of potato; leaf rot and tuber rot - Phytophthora parasitica
M. K. Patel (1948) – Established school of plant bacteriology Poona
M. K. Patel, V. P. Bhide and G. Rangaswamy- bacterial diseases
Thirumalachar- Smuts and rust- Aerofungin.
S. N. Dasgupta (1956) – Role of enzymes in pathogenicity
T.S. Sadasivan and his school developed concept of vivotoxins; mechanism of cotton wilt.
S.P. Raychaudhury Virologist
Phytopathological classics
These are the reprints of outstanding research papers published in non English journals, not available in most of the Libraries of the world
Have been translated in English
15 in Number
Phytopathological classics 1. Fabricius – Attempt at a Dissertation on the Disease of
plants. Ravn (1774)
2. Fontana – Observation on Rust of Grain 1767. Pirone (1932)
3. Millardet – the discovery of Bordeaux Mixture 1885. Schneiderhan (1933)
4. Woronin – Plasmodiophora brassicae, the Cause of the Cabbage Hernia 1878. Charles Chupp (1934)
5. Tillet – Disseretation on the Cause of the Corruption and Smutting of the Kernels of Wheat in the Head ( and on the means of preventing these untoward circumstances) 1755. Humphrey (1937)
6. Prevost – Memoir on the Immediate Cause of Bunt or Smut of Wheat, and on the Prevention of Bunt 1807. Keitt (1939)
7. Mayer (1886), Ivanowski (1892), Beijerinck (1898) and Baurb (1904) – three early papers on tobacco mosaic and one on infectious variegation. James Johnson (1942)
8. Berkeley – Observations, Botinical and Physiological, on the Potato Murrain 1846. also includes selections from Berkeley’sv “Vegetable Pathology” made by the Plant Pathology Committee of Britsh Mycological Society.1948
9. Targioni Tozzeti – True Nature and Sad Effects of the Rust and Other Maladies of Wheat and of Oats in the Field1767. Tehon (1952)
10. Bassi – Del Mal del Segno 1835. Yarrow (1958)
11.De Bary – Investigations of the Brangd Fungi and the Diseases of Plants Caused by Them With Reference to Grain and Other Useful Plants 1853. Arny and Moore (1969)
12. Harting – Important Diseases of Forest Trees 1874. detailed reporte which established the microbial basis for wood decay. (Merrill et.al.,(1975)
13.Fischer/Smith – The Fischer Smith Controversy: Are Their Bacterial Diseases of Plants? 1899. Seven articles depict vthe classic and bitter debate regarding the existence of bacterial diseases of plants. Cambell (1981)
14. Ando/ Fukushi/ Storey – Viruses In Vectors: Transovarial Passage and Retention. Classic papers on plant viruses and their insect vectors 1986.
15. Dutch Elm Disease – Original 11 Articles. That laid the foundation for studying the devastating disease. Research by 7 female Dutch scientists from 1920 - 1935
Scope & Importance of plant diseases
Scopes & Importance of Plant Diseases
Plant pathology deals with different aspects of plant diseases and has wide scope than human pathology which only deal with only one aspect
In recent years plant pathologists have begun to specialize in particular aspect. The field in which notable advances have been made are:
Interaction between host and pathogen at chemical, molecular and genetic level
Plant virology, chemistry of fungitoxicity
Disease forecasting
On practical aspects much advances have been made in plant protection chemicals; breeding for disease resistance
Increased population emphasizes the application of all possible means to meet the food requirements
Expansion of crop area
Improved methods of cultivation
Increased use of fertilizers
Improved varieties
Increased irrigation
Crop protection
Importance of Plant Diseases
Late blight of potato-1841-51 (Irish famine)
Coffee rust 1867-1870 (Srilanka)
Downy mildew of grapes (1880s) (France)
Bengal Famine 1942 (India)
Bacterial Blight of Rice 1963 (Bihar)
Southern corn leaf blight -1970 (USA)
Estimated annual losses worldwide
Diseases 14.1%
Insects 10.2%
Weeds 12.2%
Total av. looses 36.5%
Losses are more in developing world
and
less in develop world
Losses caused by Plant Diseases
“The 21st century will prove to be a fort of
strength for plant pathology, a fountain
head of knowledge where students will
drink, and the waters of which will wet the
dry lands of the whole world”
Acknowledgements
I gratefully acknowledge the use of some very important photographs given in text book “Plant Pathology” by G N Agrios.
I also acknowledge the scientists who spent valuable time in generating information on various aspects of plant pathology and displayed the same on internet for use by students, teachers and researchers
Lecture dedicated to respected “G N Agrios”