1 A Personal Perspective of the Last 40 Years of Plant Pathology: Emerging Themes, Paradigm Shifts and Future Promise
Annual Plant Reviews book series, Volume 34: Molecular Aspects of Plant Disease Resistance
Michele C. Heath,
Michele C. Heath
Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G5 Canada
Search for more papers by this authorMichele C. Heath,
Michele C. Heath
Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G5 Canada
Search for more papers by this authorFirst published: 24 April 2018
This article was originally published in 2009 in Molecular Aspects of Plant Disease Resistance, Volume 34 (ISBN 9781405175326) of the Annual Plant Reviews book series, this volume edited by Jane Parker. The article was republished in Annual Plant Reviews online in April 2018.
Abstract
The last 40 years of experimental research have resulted in a remarkable increase in our understanding of plant disease resistance to microbial pathogens, with a recent surge of clarity primarily provided by the application of molecular genetics to pathogen interactions with Arabidopsis thaliana. Research foci have changed over time with the availability of new techniques and the ability to identify genes, proteins, signalling systems and defensive biochemicals involved in plant resistance. In hindsight, early concepts were generally simplistic. Although some have been supported by subsequent data, others, such as the basis for the gene-for-gene phenomenon, have changed dramatically and it is now clear that plant–microbe interactions are sophisticated and complex. Much is left to discover: the role of the hypersensitive response is still enigmatic, the interplay of recognition events and defensive factors that control host or non-host resistance is still not clear and the number of well-studied pathosystems is still few. The future promises more attention to the spatial organisation of disease resistance at the cellular level, and new insights into the evolution of disease resistance and pathogen pathogenicity. Particularly urgent is the need for unequivocal data to prove which plant genes and processes involved in disease resistance are primarily responsible for the restriction of pathogen growth. Disappointingly, our considerable progress in understanding plant–microbe interactions in the last 40 years has not translated into comparable progress in developing novel, widespread and effective methods of disease control in the field, and this remains a significant challenge for the future.
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