International •Anton De Bary
Indian •E. J. Butler
Foundation of modern Plant
Pathology
Experimentally proved that the
fungus Phytophthora infestans was
the cause of potato late blight
Studied the Pythiaceous and allied fungi
and wrote a monograph on them
First Director of Imperial Mycological Institute
(IMI) which was later renamed as Commonwealth
Mycological Institute (CMI) in England.
The Romans used to celebrate a festival called ‘Robigalia’ to
ward off rust. It is reported to be initiated by the king Numa
Pompilus around about 700 BC to please the ‘Rust God’
Robigo and continued with modifications in the Christian
era.
G.S. Kulkarni published exhaustive information
on downy mildew and smuts of sugarcane and
pearl millet.
B.B. Mundkur started work on control of
cotton wilt through varietal resistance.
First book on plant pathology written by –
Julius Kuhn (1858)- Diseases of Cultivated
Crops, Their Causes and Their Control
Theophrastus (384-322 BC)Wrote “Historia
Plantarum” and “De Causis Plantarum”
1962- Rachel Carson’s book of “Silent
Spring” published.
T J Burril (1882): Reported for the first time that a
disease known as fire blight of apple and pear was
caused by a bacterium named Erwinia amylovora
Founder of Phytobacteriology: E F Smith
Father of Indian Phytobacteriology : M K Patel
Founder of Virology: M W Beijerinck (1898) named
the agent “Contagium vivum fluidum” meaning a
contagious living fluid or virus
Adolf Mayer. (1882 -86): Reported that tobacco mosaic was caused by
neither a microorganism nor due to nutritional imbalance. Proved that
boiling of infected plant sap destroyed the infectivity of causal agent
W M Stanley (1935): Crystallized the virus protein of TMV
and this crystalline substance remained infective
Diener (1971): Reported that potato spindle tuber disease was
caused by a small, naked, single stranded circular molecule of
infectious RNA which he called as “viroid”.
Fisher - Smith controversy (1895 – 1903) AND
WINNNER - Smith
01 02
J F Dastur :He is B B Mundkar: Established
internationally known for single handedly the Indian
establishing the Phyto pathological Society
Phytophthora parasitica in 1947.
from castor
Effect of long-term
ergot poisoning.
Alkaloids produced by the
Claviceps purpurea fungus.
Fungus that infects rye
and other cereals.
It is also known as
ergotoxicosis, ergot poisoning
and Saint Anthony's Fire.
The Great Famine or the Great Hunger
was a period of mass starvation, disease,
and emigration in Ireland between 1845
and 1852.
Sometimes referred as the Irish
Potato Famine.
Cause: Fungus Phytophthora infestans
causing a potato disease commonly known
as potato late blight, which ravaged potato
crops throughout Europe during the 1840s.
The Bengal famine of 1943 struck the Bengal
Province of British India (present-day West
Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and the country of
Bangladesh) during World War II following the
Japanese occupation of Burma.
The fungus Cochliobolus miyabeanus
(Helminthosporium oryzae) destroyed 50%
to 90% of some rice varieties causing
greater damage to yield than the cyclone
Disease Pathogen Spread of Disease
Cereal Rust
Black Rust Puccinia graminis tritici Worldwide
Yellow or stripe rust Puccinia striiformis Worldwide
Brown or orange Puccinia recondita Worldwide
rust
Disease Pathogen Spread of
Disease
Cereal Smut
Loose smut of Ustilago tritici Worldwide
wheat
Karnal bunt of Tilletia indica Worldwide
wheat
Covered smut Tilletia caries Worldwide
or bunt
Disease Pathogen Spread of Disease
Ergot of rye and wheat Claviceps purpurea Worldwide
Late blight of potato Phytophthora infestans Irish Famine (1845), worldwide
Brown spot of rice Helminthosporium oryzae Asia, Bengal famine (1943)
Southern corn leaf blight Helminthosporium maydis U S , epidemic in 1970s
Powdery mildew of grapes Uncinula necator Worldwide
Downy mildew of grapes Plasmopara viticola US, Europe
Disease Pathogen Spread of Disease
Chestnut blight Cryphonectria parasitica US, Epidemic (1904 –
1940)
Coffee rust Hemilia vestatrix Asia, epidemic ( 1870 –
1880s), South America
(1970 onwards
Sugarcane mosaic Virus Worldwide
Citrus tristeza Virus Africa, Americas
Peach yellows Phytoplasma Eastern US, Russia, Asia
Fungi Bacteria Viruses
Phytoplasma Protozoa Algae
Flowering parasitic
plants (Phanerogamic
Plant Parasites)
Fungi are eukaryotic,
achlorophyllous, generally
microscopic organisms (except few)
whose usually filamentous branched
mycelium has got cell wall made up
of chitin and glucans (but no
cellulose) and which reproduce by
asexual or sexual spores.
Mycelium: The vegetative filamentous
body of fungi is known as mycelium
Hyphae: The branches of mycelium are called
hyphae (sing. Hypha) which are of uniform
thickness and usually have a diameter of 2 – 10
µm.
In some fungi, the mycelium consists of many cells
containing one or two nuclei per cell.
In some other fungi, the mycelium contains many nuclei which
are not partitioned by cross walls. Such mycelium is called
coenocytic mycelium
The cross walls in mycelium by which the two cells are
separated are called septa (sing. Septum).
Mycelium grows at the tip of hyphae.
Some lower fungi lack true mycelium and
produce a system of dissimilar filaments of
varying diameter called rhizomycelium
Some fungal like organisms of Kingdom Protozoa
lack mycelium and produce a naked, amoeboid,
multinucleate body called plasmodium
Some of the fungi live intracellularly in the host cells
and take nutrition while, others live intercellularly
and produce specialized structures called haustoria
(sing. Haustorium) to get nutrition from host cells.
Fragmentation Chlamydospore oidia formation Fission
Budding Rhizomorphs in fungi
It is a spore sac in which secondary asexual spores are
produced after division of protoplast.
It is produced in fugal like organisms and lower fungi.
The hyphae bearing sporangia are called
sporangiophores.
The spores produced in the sporangia are called
Sporangiospores.
Aplanospores Zoospores
Aplanospores: These are the non motile
unicellular sporangiospores lacking vacuoles
and flagella. E.g. Fungi belonging to
Zygomycota
Zoospores: These are the motile
sporangiospores produced in fungi which
contain a prominent vacuole and two types of
flagella viz., whiplash and tinsel.
In some fungi only on whiplash
flagellum is present.
e.g. Chytridiomycetes while, in others like
Oomycetes both types of flagella are present in
zoospores.
Zoospores swim to nearby localities and
germinate to produce new mycelium.
A flask shaped conidiomata is called pycnidium.
A saucer shaped conidiomata is called acervulus.
When the conidiophores in a conidiomata are joined
together to form a tuft ,the latter is called synnemata.
If the conidiophores in a conidiomata are scattered
freely it is called sporodochium.
Conidia borne on conidiophores Conidia borne on phialides Sporodochium Acervulus
Pycnidium Synnemata
During parasitic phase some fungi grow on the plant surface
and send their feeding organs called haustoria into the
epidermal cells. Eg. Powdery mildews
Some fungi grow only between the cuticle and
epidermal cells. Eg. Venturia inequalis
Some grow in intercellular spaces of the cells and send
their haustoria into the cells. Eg. Phytophthora infestans
Bacteria are prokaryotes which are generally single celled microorganisms whose
genetic material (DNA) is not bound by a membrane and therefore is not
organized into a nucleus
Their cells contain cytoplasm having DNA and 70 s ribosomes
The cell wall in bacteria is made up of peptidoglycan (Murein) which is
the major component (around 90 %) in the cell wall of Gram- positive
bacteria and is in negligible amounts (up to 5 %) in Gram negative
bacteria.
The cell walls of most bacterial species are enveloped by a viscous, gummy
material, which when thin and diffuse is called slime while, thick and forming a
definite mass around the cell is called capsule
All the material inside the cell wall is called
protoplast.
Most of the bacteria also have single or multiple
copies of additional smaller circular genetic
material called plasmids
Most plant pathogenic bacteria are rod shaped,
the only exception being Streptomyces which is
filamentous.
Most of the plant pathogenic bacteria are Gram
negative and few are Gram positive.
In filamentous Streptomyces spp., cells consist of
branched threads usually having a spiral formation and
produce conidia in chains on aerial hyphae.
Some types of phytopathogenic bacteria called fastidious
bacteria (either phloem or xylem limited) which were
earlier known as Rikettsia Like Organisms (RLOs) are
difficult to culture and some of their properties are yet to
be understood.
Bacterial colonies in culture
Rod shaped phytopathogenic bacteria reproduce asexually by
binary fission or simply fission.
Rate of multiplication in bacteria is very high and bacteria may
divide every 20 to 50 minutes.
The genetic recombination in bacteria has been
noticed by the following sexual-like processes:
Conjugation
Transduction
Transformation
Conjugation occurs when
two compatible bacteria
come into contact and part
It was first
of the chromosomal or observed by
non-chromosomal genetic
material of one is Lederberg and
transferred to the other and
incorporated into the Tatum (1956)
genome of later through
conjugal zygote formation in E. coli.
and breakage and reunion.
When genetic It was first
material from one
bacterium is carried
discovered by
by its phage (virus) to Zinder and
another bacterium Lederberg
that it visits next and (1952) in
the later is genetically
transformed. Salmonella.
It occurs when the
bacterium is genetically It was first
transformed by absorption
of genetic material of observed by
another compatible
bacterium, secreted by or
Griffith (1928)
released in a culture during in Enterococcus
the rupture, and its
incorporation into the pneumoniae.
genome of the former.
Bacteria may also survive in or on seeds, other plant parts, or
in the insects found in the soil.
On plants bacteria often survive epiphytically, in buds, on
wounds, in the exudates or inside various tissues or organs
they infect.
Bacteria are mostly disseminated primarily by water, insects,
other animals and humans.
Rain distributes the bacteria from one plant to another by
washing or splashing
Insects can carry bacteria to the other plants and sites and
also inoculate them in the plants. They can even store the
bacteria in their bodies for longer durations.
Mollecutes are wall less prokaryotes which are generally single celled
microorganisms whose genetic material (DNA) is not bound by a
membrane and therefore is not organized into a nucleus
Their cells contain cytoplasm having DNA and 70 s ribosomes
The cytoplasm in mollecutes is surrounded by a cell membrane only
and lack the cell wall
These reside specifically in the sieve tube elements of phloem tissue of
plants and are transmitted by insect vectors specially leaf and plant
hoppers.
Spiroplasma
Phytoplasma
Have helical structure
These are culturable on artificial media and Koch’s postulates have been proved
They produce helical forms in liquid media
Multiply by fission
Helical filaments are motile by slow undulations of filament or by screw motion
of helix
Colonies of some on agar have a typical fried egg appearance while others have
granular appearance.
These are resistant to penicillin but susceptible to tetracycline
Spiroplasma spp. cause corn stunt, citrus stubborn disease
These are the spheroidal to ovoid or irregularly tubular to filamentous in shape and
transmitted by leafhoppers.
These can not be cultured artificially and so Koch’s postulates can not be proved
These are resistant to penicillin but susceptible to tetracycline
Treatment with oxytetracycline leads to temporary remission of symptoms in diseased plants .
These cause numerous yellows, proliferations and decline diseases in trees and some annuals. E.g.
Sandal spike, Peach yellows and elm yellows are the important diseases caused by phytoplasmas.
These have not been named permanently till date as their characterization is still under
progress.
Some have been temporarily named as Candidatus Phytoplasma ulmi causing elm yellows
disease
Parasitic Causes of Plants
Protozoa, Higher Parasitic Plants, Parasitic algae, Viruses, Viroids
TYPE OF PARASITIC PLANT EXAMPLE
Total stem parasite Cuscuta
Partial stem parasites Viscum
Total root parasite Orobanche
Partial root parasite Striga
Viscum
album growing
on a Poplus
species
Orobanche sp
colonizing
sunflower crop
Striga Plant attached to Sorghum
Striga Plant
attached to
maize
