What is Disease Resistance?
Disease resistance refers to the ability of a plant to limit the growth and development of a pathogen. There are several types of disease resistance in plants:
- Vertical resistance - Also known as race-specific resistance. This type of resistance is effective against specific races or strains of a pathogen, but not effective against others. It is controlled by a single gene and is usually short-lived as new virulent races of the pathogen can develop to overcome this resistance.
- Horizontal resistance - Also known as race non-specific resistance. This type of resistance provides protection against multiple or all races of a pathogen. It is controlled by multiple genes and tends to be more durable than vertical resistance.
- Induced resistance - Some compounds can stimulate the plant's natural defense systems providing broad-spectrum disease resistance. This type of resistance develops after initial exposure to a stressor and protects against subsequent exposures.
Plants have a multi-layered immune system to defend themselves from disease:
- The first line of defense includes physical and chemical barriers like the waxy cuticle, cell walls, bark, and production of antimicrobial compounds.
- The second line involves recognition of pathogens and signaling defense responses through receptor proteins. This often leads to a hypersensitive response which blocks the spread of the infection.
- Systemic acquired resistance then develops, priming defenses throughout the plant. This involves the production of pathogenesis-related proteins and phytoalexins.
There are several approaches used by plant breeders and geneticists to incorporate disease resistance into crop plants:
- Traditional breeding methods to transfer resistance genes from wild relatives into cultivated varieties.
- Genetic engineering to insert resistance genes from unrelated organisms.
- Marker-assisted selection to more rapidly select for resistance genes during breeding.
- Genome editing like CRISPR to knock out genes that make the plant susceptible to a disease.
Incorporating durable broad-spectrum disease resistance is key for sustainable crop production. Climate change will likely lead to altered geographical distributions of pathogens and necessitate continued efforts to breed for resistance.
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