PLANT

PATHOLOGY
JAY MARK M. LANTUD
Licensed Agriculturist
Instructor I – USTP CLAVERIA
 PLANT PATHOLOGY
PATHOLOGY
 “pathos” = suffering
 “logos” = the study of…

…study of factors which cause DISEASES in PLANTS, the

MECHANISMS how these factors induce disease & how to
CONTROL them…
-PHYTOPATHOLOGY-

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The Science and Art of Plant Pathology
SCIENCE - “Why” or ‘What” ART “How”
 Characters of disease &  Disease diagnosis
causes  Disease assessment
 Plant-pathogen interaction  Recommendations
 Mechanisms of disease  Field application of control
production measure
 Control

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THE RAISON D’ETRE AND ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE OF PLANT
PATHOLOGY IS TO PREVENT OR MINIMIZE PLANT
DISEASES NOT ONLY TO INCREASE FOOD PRODUCTION
BUT ALSO TO MAINTAIN THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF
THE HARVESTED FRESH COMMODITY UNTIL IT REACHES
THE CONSUMER. WE ALSO NEED TO PROTECT AND
PRESERVE PLANTS USED FOR “FIBERS, DRUGS AND
AESTHETICS.”
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ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF PLANT
DISEASE
Suffering and Upheavals:
 Potato late blight disease – Irish famine (1845-1846)
 Coffee rust – Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
 Ergot Poisoning – from fungal-infected rye grains
 Famines in Africa, Latin America & Asia
 USA - 4.6 Million dollars losses annually due to
diseases 5
 ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF PLANT
DISEASE
…in the Philippines
⊳ Cadang-cadang disease of coconut (1918) – 200 million dollars
⊳ Downy mildew of corn – 95% annual losses = P170 million;
Metalaxyl treatment (1978)
⊳ Tungro disease of rice (1971) - 70,000 ha of rice = 1.22 million
cavans = Php 30,357,000.00
⊳ Coffee rust & citrus decline disease – in Batangas

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Health Risks
⊳ Aflatoxins – from Aspergillus flavus, which is carcinogenic to
man and animals
⊳ Ochratoxin – from Aspergillus ochraceous (mycotoxin), causes
liver cancer.
⊳ Estrogenic factor in corn – from Fusarium graminearum, causes
the testes of male swine to atrophy and the uteri of female pigs to
enlarge and abort.
⊳ Fumonisins of corn – Fusarium spp., causes esophageal cancer
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HISTORICAL
DEVELOPMENT OF
PLANT PATHOLOGY
 Pre-scientific Period
⊳ The Bible, Aristotle, Homer &
Theoprastus – recorded a number of
diseases such as blights, mildews, rusts
and blasts.
⊳ Greeks and Hebrews – believed plant
diseases were the result of their sin.
⊳ Romans - held an annual festival called
Robigalia in honor of their rust gods
Robigus and Robigo.

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Beginnings and Advances in Scientific Studies
⊳ Franz Unger was credited with his
“Autogenetic Theory of Disease”
This theory considers the pathogen
an outgrowth of the infected host
plant without an independent body
or life of its own or the pathogen is
the result of the disease not the
cause.
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Beginnings and Advances in Scientific Studies

 Heinrich Anton de Bary (1853) -

“Father of Plant Pathology”, clearly
demonstrated that fungi are the cause
and not the result of plant disease.
This marked the end of autogenetic
theory and acceptance of the germ
theory of disease.

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Beginnings and Advances in Scientific Studies
⊳ Louis Pasteur, “Germ Theory”
(1860) - completed the overthrow of
the theory of spontaneous generation
when he provided irrefutable evidence
that microorganisms arose from pre-
existing living entities. This is now the
beginning of the germ theory.

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Beginnings and Advances in Scientific Studies

⊳ Ivanowski and Beijerinck – showed that some

plant diseases are caused by very small entities that
could pass through bacteria-proof filters. This has
started the field of virology.
⊳ Gierer and Scramm – found that the nucleic acid
is the infective component of a virus.
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Beginnings and Advances in Scientific Studies

⊳ Bordeaux mixture – discovered by Pierre Marie

Alexis Millardet in October 1882. A highly
effective fungicide which formed the foundation
for the chemical control of plant diseases.

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Development of Plant Pathology in the
Philippines
The first disease reported in the Philippines:
 Coffee rust (Hemileia vastatrix) -
Batangas, 1885 & 1890.
 Coconut bud rot (Phytophthora
palmivora) in Laguna spreading to
Quezon Province.

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Development of Plant Pathology in the
Philippines
⊳ Dean E.B. Copeland - the first dean
of the UP College of Agriculture on
1908. He investigated coconut bud rot
and the results were published in
1908. This is where the
phytopathological work in the country
all started and is still going strong
today.
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Development of Plant Pathology in the
Philippines
⊳ G.O. Ocfemia (1918) - “Dean of
Filipino Plant Pathologists”. He
studied the nature and cause abaca
bunchy top including the vector of
the causal agent. On 1920, he also
studied the Fiji disease of sugar cane.

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Development of Plant Pathology in the
Philippines
⊳ 1963 – the Philippine Phytophatological Society
was established and is still going strong at present.
⊳ Davide and co-workers – investigated a fungus,
Paecilomyces lilacinus, as biological control against
parasitic nematode.

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Concepts of
Plant Disease

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Concepts of Plant Disease
⊳ Whetzel, 1929
“Physiological malfunctioning caused by animate agents.” He
preferred to call malfunctioning caused by non-living or inanimate
agents as “physiogenic disease.”
⊳ Stackman and Harrar , 1957
“Any deviation from normal growth or structure of plants that
is sufficiently pronounced and permanent to produce visible
symptoms or to impair quality or economic value.”
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Concepts of Plant Disease
⊳ Horsfall and Dimond, 1959
“A malfunctioning process caused by continuous irritation.”
⊳ Stackman and Harrar , 1957
“Any deviation from normal growth or structure of plants that is
sufficiently pronounced and permanent to produce visible symptoms or
to impair quality or economic value.”
⊳ Merill, 1980
“A dynamic interaction between an organism and its environment which
result in abnormal physiological and often morphological or
neurological changes in the organism.”

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Concepts of Plant Disease
⊳ Agrios, 1978
“Any disturbance brought about by a pathogen or an environmental
factor which interferes with the manufacture, translocation or
utilization of food, mineral nutrients and water in such a way that
the affected plant changes in appearance and yields less than a
normal healthy plant of the same variety.”
⊳ National Academy of Science, 1968
“Harmful alteration of the normal physiological and biochemical
development of a plant.”

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Concepts of Plant Disease
⊳ SALIENT POINTS:
a) The presence of physiological disorders that
are detrimental; and
b) Morphological abnormalities resulted from
the physiological malfunctioning.

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Terminologies in Plant Pathology
⊳ Pathogen – any agent ⊳ Parasite – an organism
(biotic or abiotic), that which depends wholly or
causes a disease. partly on another living
organism for its food.

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Terminologies in Plant Pathology
 Obligate parasite –  Facultative parasite –
an organism that an organism which has
subsist on living ability to become a
organisms and parasite although it is
attacks only living ordinarily a
tissues. saprophyte.

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Terminologies in Plant Pathology
 Facultative saprophyte –
has the ability to become a
saprophyte but is ordinarily
⊳ Saprophyte – an a parasite.
organism that lives on
dead organic or inorganic
matter.
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Terminologies in Plant Pathology
⊳ Pathogenicity – capacity
of a pathogen to cause
disease.

⊳ Pathogenesis – disease
development in the plant.

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Terminologies in Plant Pathology

⊳ Virulence – quantitative ⊳ Aggressiveness – measures

amount of disease that an the rate at which virulence is
isolate of a given expressed by a given
pathogen can cause in a pathogenic isolate.
group of plants.
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Terminologies in Plant Pathology
⊳ Disease resistance – ⊳ Tolerance – exhibited by a
inherent ability of an plant which is severely
organism to overcome, in affected by a pathogen without
any degree, the effects of experiencing a severe
a pathogen. reduction in yield.

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Terminologies in Plant Pathology
⊳ Masked symptoms –
symptoms not expressed
due to unfavorable
condition. ⊳ Symptomless carrier – a host
that do not show symptom
irrespective of the
environment.
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THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING!
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