Vol. 7, Issue 5 (2019)
Evolution of plant pathogens in the race for survival
Author(s): Urmil Barthakur and Sukanya Gogoi
Abstract: Evolution can be termed as the process by which different kinds of living organisms are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the Earth. In an interacting and dynamic environment, evolution is a constant process which helps the organisms to survive the changing environment and compete with other organisms for food and space. In the context of plant host and their pathogens, they are always entangled in an evolutionary arms-race to gain advantage over one another. Darwin was one of the first pioneers who studied evolution and put up the theory of evolution which includes the survival of the fittest. In a host-pathogen interaction, the host will always try to defend itself from the pathogen whereas the pathogen will find ways to penetrate the defense of the host. When a pathogen is introduced into a new area, limited resistance in the host and excessive aggressiveness in the pathogen can lead to explosive outbreak of the disease due to lack of prior co-evolution of the host and the pathogen. A study in the genome evolution of some plant pathogens provides useful insights how pathogens adapt to infect specific hosts. In today’s world, climate change is a major issue. Similarly, climate change has a major role to play in the evolution of plant pathogens and how they interact with their host and the changing environment. Agriculture today, which is highly mechanized with high resource inputs, particularly in developed countries result in new disease occurrence due to loss of genetic variation and evolution of plant pathogens. Practices like monoculture over vast areas of land reduce the genetic variation of the host resulting in strong directional selection. One of the most common and most important examples of evolution is the evolution of the Ug99 race of wheat stem rust fungus which has evolved to overcome the resistance of major wheat varieties.
Pages: 1445-1451 | 264 Views 70 Downloads
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How to cite this article:
Urmil Barthakur, Sukanya Gogoi. Evolution of plant pathogens in the race for survival. Int J Chem Stud 2019;7(5):1445-1451.
