Inducing Resistance in Plants

Through Vaccination-A Novel Approach

Modala Naga Raghuveer (4/4 B.Tech Biotechnology),College of Engineering-GITAM

ABSTRACT:

In India, annually 1000 crores of rupees are being spent on chemical

pesticides .Yet, pesticide resistance and pest resurgence continue to be a
major problem .Sustainable pest and disease control are therefore key issues
for food production around the world .Conventional pesticides are highly
effective ,but can pose risks to users during application ,consumers than
produce is eaten ,and more generally to environment through effects on non-
target organisms .There is also an increasing problem with target organisms
developing resistance to previously effective chemicals .Equally genetic
modification is powerful technology ,but is meeting increasing resistance in
some parts of the globe ,and may not escape problems of targets adapting to
overcome resistance mechanisms.One route forward for pest and disease
control is to exploit the immense advances in understanding the underlying
mechanisms of plant resistances via routes that do not require genetic
modification .The research that will be undertaken during this study is just
such an approach .It is based on the understanding of plant induced
resistances (i.e. mechanisms that may be seen as analogous to the human
immune system in that initial ,local attack leads to the induction of changes
throughout the whole plant that provides protection against future attack ).It
will exploit induced resistances by “priming” the plant so that it responds
more effectively to attack, holding pest or disease attack below the level at
which significant yield loss occurs .Priming is achieved by the the
application of naturally–occurring signaling compounds that act with in the
plant to control induced resistance .This approach is highly effective and
considered sustainable since it does not affect non-target organisms ,and use
only agents that occur naturally in the environment .It is also relatively low
cost ,and is compatible with organic production systems.