Disease resistance refers to the ability of a plant or animal to limit or avoid diseases and infections from pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, nematodes, and insects. There are two main types of disease resistance:
Plants have innate immune systems that provide the first line of defense against diseases. If pathogens penetrate the plant cells, resistant plants can recognize the invader and trigger defense responses like hypersensitive cell death, production of reactive oxygen species, and synthesis of antimicrobial proteins and chemicals.
Some common traits that provide disease resistance in plants include:
Breeding crops for enhanced disease resistance involves identifying sources of resistance genes in wild relatives or land races and introgressing them into elite cultivars using conventional breeding or biotechnological techniques. This helps boost productivity in agricultural systems plagued by evolving pathogen and insect populations.
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Disease resistance breeding is crucial for global food security as it enables sustainable crop production without excessive pesticide usage. Multinational seed companies invest heavily in research and product development focused on disease resistance. Public sector institutions also have an important role to play through pre-breeding research that identifies novel resistance sources. ultimately, productive collaboration between public and private sector is key to ensure a continuous pipeline of elite, climate resilient crop varieties with durable genetic resistance.
Some key focus areas for future research in this domain are:
I hope this gives you a good overview of what disease resistance entails and why it is vital for global food security. Let me know if you have any other questions!