PERM 324

Reading Guide - NOTES – 2022/23

Following the Concept of diseases in plants, plants generally undergo biotic stress when they are
attacked by plant pests and disease agents including pathogens, pests and weeds. Whenever plants
are disturbed to such an extent that one or more of the above-mentioned functions is not able to
perform well, the plant is said to be diseased. When an agent or environmental conditions cause
the plant to deviate from its normal functions, the plant manifests these through symptoms.
Symptoms are the manifestation of the diseased conditions of the plant or the organism.

Plant diseases may also be taken as impaired metabolism that results from continuous irritation by
a primary causal agent. The primary causal agent is the actual organism responsible for the disease.
Secondary organisms, mainly saprophytes are intruders in disease development.

Usually the disease is expressed in morphological and histological symptoms which along with
the signs of the pathogens are useful in the diagnosis of diseases.
➢ Morphological symptoms are the outward manifestations or expressions of the diseased
condition of the plant as a result of the presence of the pathogen. E.g. Wilting of leaves,
necrosis, or death of cells, stunting of plants etc.
➢ Histological symptoms are usually deeply seated, or situated in the host tissue and are
invisible to the eye, e.g. Discolorations of cells due to the presence of the disease,
enlargement of cells, abnormal multiplication of cells, de-lignification of cell walls or
suberization among others.
The affected cells in a diseased plant are destroyed and the kinds of cells and tissues affected
determine the type of function or process that will be affected. If the roots get rotten, absorption
of water and mineral salts from the soil may be interfered with.

What is a plant disease?

1. It is any deviation or departure from normal growth or structure of plants that is sufficiently
pronounced and permanent to produce symptoms to impair the quality and to reduce the
economic value of the plant.
A plant disease is an abnormal condition in plants which results in changes in structure and
physiological processes which are brought about by unfavorable environment.

A diseased plant is therefore one which has its physiological functions interfered with beyond a
certain deviation from the normal resulting in the production of certain definite symptoms.

Causes of plant disease

The primary causes of plant diseases may be grouped into 3.
1. Pathogenic causes through action of bacteria, fungi, insects, nematodes, etc.
2. Non-pathogenic agents such as abnormal or extremes of temperature and moisture,
respiratory gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide), atmospheric impurities, nutritional
disorders. Also wounding, mechanical, chemical and physical damage to plants etc.
3. Viruses – present in soil or plant parts used for propagation.
The plant that harbors the disease causing organism is called the host plant.
A plant is host susceptible if it is vulnerable to infection.

Classification of plant diseases

Plant diseases could be classified:
1. Based on symptom expression include; wilting, necrosis, gall, chlorosis, mosaic etc.
2. Based on causal agent such as; fungal diseases, bacterial diseases, viral diseases,
physiological disorders, nutritional diseases, mechanical diseases etc.
3. Based on part of the plant affected for example; leaf or folia diseases, root diseases,
stem and fruit diseases, etc.
4. Based on age of plant including; seedling diseases, storage diseases etc.
5. Based on type of crop affected such as; field crop diseases, vegetable crop diseases,
plantation crop diseases, cash crop diseases etc.
Some symptoms produced on plants include:
Necrosis, chlorosis, leaf curl, mildew, leaf spot, wilting, mosaic, etiolating, withering, blast,
die-back, blight, vein –clearing etc.
Open book Class Test; Students write short notes on the symptoms listed.
Definition of terms
➢ Inoculum; that portion of the pathogen which when transferred into a host is capable of
initiating a disease
➢ Infection; the establishment of the pathogen within the host following penetration
➢ Penetration; This is the initial invasion of the host by a pathogen
➢ Incubation period; the interval between infection and the appearance of the symptoms
of the disease on the host plant
➢ Infection court; the place on or in the susceptible plant where incubation can occur and
where infection can occur
➢ Disease development; the chain of events which take place from initial infection to the
expression of disease
➢ Disease cycle; a repetition of chain of events leading to the expression of the disease
➢ Susceptibility; a condition of the plant in which it is usually subjected to attack by a
given disease pathogen
➢ Resistance; (opposite of susceptible); a condition of the plant in which it is not usually
subjected to attack by a given disease pathogen.
➢ Pathogenesis; the process whereby disease development takes place. It includes
inoculation, penetration, incubation, and disease development.
➢ Epiphytes; non-parasitic plants which attach themselves to other plants for mechanical
support
➢ Obligate parasite; an organism that can only grow or survive in the tissues of another
living organism.
➢ Facultative parasite; organisms that are capable of independent life, but under certain
conditions live as parasites.

Students write essay for submission

*What is the Importance of plant diseases in ecological interactions in the ecosystem?
 • Interactions between plants and other biotic agents

Fungi are also involved in several ecological interactions in the natural ecosystems. Fungi are
made of filamentous tubes called hyphae. In many species, perforated walls, or septa, divide the
hyphae into cells containing one or two nuclei. Protoplasm flows through the opening in the septa
to provide the cells with nutrients, which are stored in the hyphal walls as glycogen. Hyphae
elongate from the tip. The entire mass of hyphae is collectively called the mycelium.

With the exception of one-celled species, most fungi are composed of threadlike tubular filaments
called hyphae. Each individual hypha is surrounded by a fairly rigid wall usually made of chitin—
the same material that forms the exoskeletons of insects. Hyphae that are partitioned by dividing
cross walls are called septate hyphae, and hyphae without cross walls are called non-septate, or
coenocytic, hyphae. Fungal cells contain cytoplasm, which is a mixture of internal fluids and
nutrients. Cytoplasm flows freely within the hyphae, providing nutrients wherever they are needed.

Fungus is any member of a diverse group of organisms that—unlike plants and animals—obtain
food by absorbing nutrients from an external source. The fossil record suggests that fungi were
present 550 million years ago and may have evolved even earlier. Today thousands of different
types of fungi grow on and absorb food from substances such as soil, wood, decaying organic
matter, or living plants and other organisms. They range from tiny, single-celled organisms
invisible to the naked eye to some of the largest living multi-cellular organisms. In Michigan for
example, the underground portion of an individual Armillaria mushroom, a type of fungus, extends
more than 12 hectares (30 acres). Other fungi are among the longest-lived organisms on Earth—
some lichens, a living partnership of a fungus and an alga, are thought to be more than 4,500 years
old.

As a large and widely distributed group of organisms, fungi perform activities essential to the
functioning of all natural ecosystems. They are among the foremost decomposers of organic
matter, breaking down plant and animal remains and wastes into their chemical components. As
such, fungi play a critical role in the recycling of minerals and carbon. Fungi’s value to humankind
is inestimable. Certain types of fungi, including several types of mold, have proven extremely
valuable in the synthesis of antibiotics and hormones used in medicine and of enzymes used in
certain manufacturing processes. Some fungi, such as mushrooms and truffles, are considered tasty
delicacies that enhance a wide variety of recipes. Not all fungi are beneficial—some damage
agricultural crops, cause disease in animals and humans, and form poisonous toxins in food.

Common fungi include mushrooms, puffballs, truffles, yeasts, and most mildew as well as various
plant and animal pathogens (disease agents), such as plant rusts and smuts. Some experts estimate
that there are 1.5 million fungus species, of which approximately 100,000 have been identified.
The unique characteristics of fungi led scientists to classify these important organisms into a
separate kingdom, Kingdom Fungi (also known as Mycetae). Certain fungus-like organisms, such
as downy mildews, water molds (also known as oomycetes), and slime molds, once classified as
fungi, are now placed in the Kingdom Protista.

• How fungi feed

Fungi lack chlorophyll, the green pigment that enables plants to make their own food.
Consequently, fungi cannot synthesize their own food the way plants do. In order to feed, fungi
release digestive enzymes that break down food outside their bodies. The fungus then absorbs the
dissolved food through its cell walls.

Depending as they do on outside sources for food, fungi have developed various living
arrangements that enhance their opportunities for food absorption. Some fungi live as parasites,
feeding on living plants, animals, and even other fungi. Certain fungus parasites injure plants and
animals, causing millions of dollars of damage to farm animals, crops, and trees each year. For
example, the fungus Ophiostoma ulmi, which causes Dutch elm disease, has killed tens of millions
of elm trees around the world.

Fungi that obtain their food by breaking down dead organisms or substances that contain organic
compounds, such as starch and cellulose, are called saprobes or saprophytes. While they are
invaluable decomposers of organic material, saprobes can also cause food spoilage and destroy
wood products. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), more British ships were destroyed
by wood-digesting saprobes than by enemy attack. Some saprobes even grow in aviation fuels,
where they breakdown the fuels, destroying their usefulness.
Some fungi also form highly specialized relationships with other organisms (see Symbiosis). For
example, the roots of most plants develop a mutually beneficial association with fungi to form
mycorrhizae. Mycorrhizae greatly increase the nutrient-absorbing capacity of the plant root—the
fungus absorbs minerals from the soil and exchanges them for organic nutrients synthesized by the
plant. Fungi also form mutuality associations with various animals. For example, leaf-cutting ants
cut pieces of leaves and bring them into their underground nests, where they feed them to certain
fungi. These fungi primarily live in ant nests, and the ants eat nothing but the fungi. Some termites
and wood-boring beetles use fungi to break down the cellulose in wood, making the wood easier
for the insects to digest. Plant parasites such as rusts invade plant cells via specialized structures
called haustoria that absorb nutrients from the cell.

• Insects also play several roles in ecological interactions in natural ecosystems

An Insect is a small, air-breathing animal characterized by a segmented body with three main
parts—head, thorax, and abdomen. In their adult forms, insects typically have three pairs of legs,
one pair of antennae, and in most instances, two pairs of wings. In terms of variety and abundance,
insects rank among the most successful animals on Earth. About one million species of insects
have been identified so far, which about half of all the animals are known to science. Insects live
in almost every habitat on land. For example, distant relatives of crickets called rock crawlers
survive in the peaks of the Himalayas by producing a kind of antifreeze that prevents their body
fluids from freezing solid. At the other extreme are worker ants that forage for food in the Sahara
Desert at temperatures above 50° C (122° F). Insects consume an enormous variety of food. In the
wild, many eat leaves, wood, nectar, or other small animals, but indoors some survive on a diet of
wool clothes, glue, and even soap. As a group, insects have only one important limitation: although
many species live in fresh water—particularly when they are young—only a few can survive in
the salty water of the oceans.

Insects are often regarded as pests because some bite, sting, spread diseases, or compete with
humans for crop plants. Nevertheless, without insects to pollinate flowers, the human race would
soon run out of food because many of the crop plants that we rely on would not be able to
reproduce. Insects themselves are valued as food in most of the world, except among Western
societies. They help to recycle organic matter by feeding on wastes and on dead plants and animals.
In addition, insects are of aesthetic importance—some insects, such as dragonflies, beetles, and
butterflies, are widely thought to be among the most beautiful of all animals

Insects are invertebrates, animals without backbones. They belong to a category of invertebrates
called arthropods, which all have jointed legs, segmented bodies, and a hard outer covering called
an exoskeleton. Two other well-known groups of arthropods are crustaceans, which include
crayfish and crabs, and arachnids, which include spiders, ticks, mites, and scorpions. Many types
of arthropods are commonly called bugs, but not every “bug” is an insect. Spiders, for example,
are not insects, because they have eight legs and only two main body segments.

Insects range in length from the feathery-winged dwarf beetle, which is barely visible to the naked
eye at 0.25 mm (0.01 in), to the walking stick of Southeast Asia, which measures up to 50 cm (20
in) with its legs stretched out. The vast majority of insects fall into the size range of 6 to 25 mm
(0.25 to 1 in). The heaviest member of the insect world is the African goliath beetle, which weighs
about 85 g (3 oz)—more than the weight of some birds.

A typical dissection of a jewel beetle shows the various components of its anatomy. The head, or
front segment, contains the mouth, eyes, and antennae. The first segment of the thorax, located
just behind the head, bears the first pair of legs. The large posterior section of the body, including
the second and third segments of the thorax and the abdomen, contains the remainder of the
walking legs and all the vital body organs. The wings lack muscles and are manipulated by muscles
located inside the abdomen. The outer surface of the body, called the exoskeleton, is protected by
a hard chitinous material.

Regardless of their size, all adult insects have a similar body plan, which includes an exoskeleton,
a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. The exoskeleton protects the insect, gives the body its form,
and anchors its muscles. The head holds most of an insect’s sensory organs, as well as its brain
and mouth. The thorax, the body segment to which wings and legs are attached, is the insect’s
center of locomotion. An insect’s large, elongated abdomen is where food is processed and where
the reproductive organs are located.

Like other arthropods, an insect’s external skeleton, or exoskeleton, is made of semi rigid plates
and tubes. In insects, these plates are made of a plastic-like material called chitin along with a
tough protein. A waterproof wax covers the plates and prevents the insect’s internal tissues from
drying out.

Insect exoskeletons are highly effective as a body framework, but they have two drawbacks: they
cannot grow once they have formed, and like a suit of armor, they become too heavy to move when
they reach a certain size. Insects overcome the first problem by periodically molting their
exoskeleton and growing a larger one in its place. Insects have not evolved ways to solve the
problem of increasing weight, and this is one of the reasons why insects are relatively small.

An insect’s head is typically dominated by two bulging eyes, which are called compound eyes
because they are divided into many six-sided compartments called ommatidia. All of an insect’s
ommatidia contribute to the formation of images in the brain. Insect eyes provide a less detailed
view of the world than human eyes, but they are far more sensitive to movement. Insects with poor
vision, such as some worker ants, often have just a few dozen ommatidia in each eye, but
dragonflies, with more than 20,000 ommatidia, have very keen vision—an essential adaptation for
insects that catch their prey in midair.

The head also carries the mouthparts, which have evolved into a variety of shapes that correspond
to an insect’s diet. Grasshoppers and other plant-eating insects have sharp-edged jaws called
mandibles that move from side to side rather than up and down. Most butterflies and moths, which
feed mainly on liquid nectar from flowers, do not have jaws. Instead, they sip their food through a
tubular tongue, or proboscis, which coils up when not in use. Female mosquitoes have a piercing
mouthpart called a stylet. House flies have a spongy pad called a labellum that dribbles saliva onto
their food. The saliva contains enzymes that break down the food, and once some of the food has
dissolved, the fly sucks it up, stows away the pad, and moves on.

Antennae are composed of three segments, called the scape, pedicel, and flagellum. They may
have a simple, threadlike structure, but they are often highly ornate. Some male giant silkworm
moths, for example, have large, finely branched antennae that are capable of detecting pheromones
given off by a female several miles away.

An insect obtains crucial information about its surroundings by means of its antennae, which
extend from the front of the head, usually between and slightly above the insect’s eyes. Although
antennae are sometimes called feelers, their primary role is to provide insects with a sensitive sense
of smell. Antennae are lined with numerous olfactory nerves, which insects rely on to smell food
and detect the pheromones, or odor-carrying molecules, released by potential mates. For example,
some insects, such as ants and honey bees, touch antennae to differentiate nest mates from intruders
and to share information about food sources and danger. The antennae of mosquitoes can detect
sounds as well as odors.

The eyes of insects and many other arthropods are compound, each composed of up to several
thousand individual visual organs called ommatidia. The surface of each ommatidium is a
hexagonal lens, below which is a second, conical lens. Light entering the ommatidium is focused
by these lenses down a central structure called the rhabdom, where an inverted image forms on
light-sensitive retinular cells. Pigment cells surrounding the rhabdom keep light from other
ommatidia from entering. Optic nerve fibers transmit information from each rhabdom separately
to the brain, where it is combined to form a single image of the outside world.

Most flying insects also have three much simpler eyes, called ocelli, arranged in a triangle on top
of the head. The ocelli can perceive light, but they cannot form images. Clues provided by the
ocelli about the intensity of light influence an insect’s level of activity. For example, a house fly
whose ocelli have been blackened will remain motionless, even in daylight.

Immediately behind the head, is the attachment site for an insect’s legs and wings. Adult insects
can have one or two pairs of wings—or none at all—but they almost always have six legs. In some
insects, such as beetles, the legs are practically identical, but in other insects each pair is a slightly
different shape. Still other insects have specialized leg structures. Examples are praying mantises,
which have grasping and stabbing forelegs armed with lethal spines, and grasshoppers and fleas,
which have large, muscular hind legs that catapult them into the air. Mole crickets’ front legs are
modified for digging, and backswimmers have hind legs designed for swimming.

Special adaptations of insect legs help small insects perch on flowers and leaves. House flies and
many other insects have a pair of adhesive pads consisting of densely packed hairs at the tip of
each leg. Glands in the pads release an oily secretion that helps these insects stick to any surface
they land on. These adaptations permit house flies to walk upside down on the ceiling and climb
up a smooth windowpane.

Insects are the only invertebrates that have wings. Unlike the wings of birds, insect wings are not
specially adapted front limbs; instead, they are outgrowths of the exoskeleton. Insect wings consist
of a double layer of extremely thin cuticle, which is interspersed with hollow veins filled with
either air or blood. The wings of butterflies and moths are covered by tiny, overlapping scales,
which provide protection and give wings their characteristic color. Some of these scales contain
grains of yellow or red pigments. Other scales lack chemical pigments but are made up of
microscopic ridges and grooves that alter the reflection of light. When the light strikes these scales
at certain angles, they appear to be blue or green.

Unlike the legs, an insect's wings do not contain muscles. Instead, the thorax acts as their power
plant, and muscles inside it lever the wings up and down. The speed of insect wing movements
varies from a leisurely two beats per second in the case of large tropical butterflies to over 1,000
beats per second in some midges—so fast that the wings disappear into a blur. When an insect's
wings are not in use, they are normally held flat, but for added protection, some species fold them
up and pack them away. In earwigs, the folding is so intricate that the wings take many seconds to
unpack, making take-off a slow and complicated business.

In addition to the legs and wings, the thorax contains part of an insect’s digestive tract, which runs
along the full length of an insect’s body. The first section of the digestive tract is called the foregut.
In many insects, the foregut contains structures called the crop and the gizzard. The crop stores
food that has been partially broken down in the mouth and the gizzard grinds tough food into fine
particles.

Behind the thorax is the abdomen, a part of the body concerned chiefly with digestion and
reproduction. The abdomen contains two sections of the digestive tract: the midgut, which includes
the stomach, and the hindgut, or intestine. In all insects, a bundle of tube-like structures called the
Malpighian tubules lies between the mid-gut and the hindgut. These tubules remove wastes from
the blood and pass them into the intestine.
The abdomen holds the reproductive organs of both male and female insects. In males, these
typically include a pair of organs called testes, which produce sperm, and an organ called the
aedeagus, which deposits packets of sperm, called spermatophores, inside the female. Many male
insects have appendages called claspers, which help them stay in position during mating.

Female insects typically have an opening in the abdomen called an ovipore, through which they
receive spermatophores. In most females, this genital chamber is connected to an organ called the
spermatheca, where sperm can be stored for a year or longer. Females also have a pair of ovaries,
which produce eggs, and many female insects have an ovipositor, which can have a variety of
forms and is used to lay fertilized eggs. Among some females, such as infertile bees, the ovipositor
functions as a stinger instead of as a reproductive organ.

The abdomen is divided into 10 or 11 similar segments, connected by flexible joints. These joints
make the abdomen much more mobile than the head or thorax; it can stretch out like a concertina
to lay eggs, or bend double to jab home its sting. In many insects, the last segment of the abdomen
bears a single pair of appendages called cerci. Cerci are thought to be sensory receptors, much like
antennae, although in some insects they may play a role in defense.

Generalized Anatomy of an Insect

All adult insects have three main body parts—the head, which holds an insect’s primary sense
organs; the thorax, which is the attachment site for the legs and wings; and the abdomen, which
contains the organs for digestion and reproduction. All of the insect’s soft inner body parts are
protected by an external skeleton, or exoskeleton, made of semi-rigid plates and tubes

Like other animals, insects absorb nutrients from food, expel waste products via an excretory
system, and take in oxygen from the air. Insect blood circulates nutrients and removes wastes from
the body, but unlike most animals, insect blood plays little or no part in carrying oxygen through
the body. Lacking the oxygen-carrying protein called hemoglobin that gives the blood of humans
and many other animals its red color, insect blood is usually colorless or a watery green. For
oxygen circulation, insects rely on a set of branching, air-filled tubes called tracheae. These
airways connect with the outside through circular openings called spiracles, which are sometimes
visible as tiny 'portholes' along the abdomen. From the spiracles, the tracheae tubes reach deep
inside the body, supplying oxygen to every cell. In small insects, the tracheal system works
passively, with oxygen simply diffusing in. Larger insects, such as grasshoppers and wasps, have
internal air sacs connected to their tracheae. These insects speed up their gas exchange by
squeezing the sacs to make them suck air in from outside.

Instead of flowing through a complex network of blood vessels, an insect’s blood travels through
one main blood vessel, the aorta, which runs the length of the body. A simple tube-like heart pumps
blood forward through the aorta, and the blood makes its return journey through the body spaces.
Compared to blood vessels, these spaces have a relatively large volume, which means that insects
have a lot of blood. In some species, blood makes up over 30 percent of their body weight,
compared to only 8 percent in humans. The pumping rate of their hearts is widely variable because
insects are cold-blooded—meaning that their body temperature is determined by the temperature
of their environment. In warm weather, when insects are most active, an insect heart may pulse
140 times each minute. In contrast, during extremely cold weather, insect body functions slow
down, and the heart may beat as slowly as a single pulse per hour.

In the digestive system of insects, the foregut stores food and sometimes breaks it down into small
pieces. The mid-gut digests and absorbs food, and the hindgut, sometimes working together with
the Malpighian tubules, manages water balance and excretion. This three-part digestive system has
been adapted to accommodate highly specialized diets. For example, fluid-feeders such as
butterflies have a pump-like tube in their throats called a pharynx that enables them to suck up
their food. Most of these fluid-feeders also have an expandable crop acting as a temporary food
store. Insects that eat solid food, such as beetles and grasshoppers, have a well-developed gizzard.
The gizzard is armed with small but hard teeth which cut up food before it is digested. At the other
end of the digestive system, wood-eating termites have a specially modified hindgut, crammed
with millions of microorganisms. These helpers break down the cellulose in wood, turning it into
nutrients that termites can absorb. Since both the microorganisms and the termites benefit from
this arrangement, it is considered an example of symbiosis.

Insects have a well-developed nervous system, based on a double cord of nerves that stretches the
length of the body. An insect's brain collects information from its numerous sense organs, but
unlike a human brain, it is not in sole charge of movement. This is controlled by a series of nerve
bundles called ganglia, one for each body segment, connected by the nerve cord. Even if the brain
is out of action, these ganglia continue to work.

Among the legions of beetles that speed up decomposition and the recycling of nutrients through
ecosystems, pairs of American burying beetles enter the carcasses of small mammals and medium-
size birds to feed on developing larvae. Where the ground is too hard, the male and female may lie
on their backs underneath the body and push it along with their legs to softer dirt. They can lift
animals 200 times their own weight and move them several feet.
Beetles have proved invaluable in the control of damaging insects and invading weeds, and they
continue to be major pollinators. But some, like the boll weevil, which toppled the cotton economy
of the American South during the early 20th century, are notorious munchers of crops, stored grain,
or timber.

Student reading

Read about: Fruit; Monocots; Dicot; Nut; Plant Distribution; Plant Propagation; and
Poisonous Plants