What is disease resistance?
Disease resistance refers to the ability of a plant to limit or withstand the infection and development of pathogens like bacteria, fungi, and viruses that cause disease. There are several types of disease resistance in plants:
- Horizontal resistance - provides resistance to multiple strains or races of a pathogen across environments. This form of resistance is usually controlled by several genes and tends to be more durable.
- Vertical resistance - controlled by a single gene and provides resistance to specific strains or races of a pathogen. This resistance tends to break down more easily as new pathogen races evolve.
- Quantitative resistance - involves multiple genes, each having a partial effect, that collectively provide resistance. This type of resistance is more difficult for pathogens to overcome.
Plants have innate immune systems that enable them to resist many potential pathogens. Key mechanisms include:
- Physical barriers like waxy cuticles and cell walls
- Production of antimicrobial compounds
- Hypersensitive response - programmed death of infected plant cells to limit pathogen spread
Breeders utilize various strategies to incorporate and stack disease resistance traits into commercial crop varieties, seeking to provide broad-spectrum and durable resistance. Common approaches include:
- Introgressing major resistance genes from wild crop relatives through breeding
- Pyramiding multiple resistance genes together
- Selecting for partial, quantitative sources of resistance controlled by many genes
While no variety has full immunity to all pathogens, stacking various types of plant disease resistance provides more robust and sustainable protection, reducing reliance on fungicides and improving yields. Our crop varieties at Balance Clinic leverage the latest disease resistance technology to help farmers grow healthy, resilient yields. We'd be happy to discuss our elite genetics with you!
This overview covers key aspects of the genetic and biochemical factors underlying disease resistance in plants. Some additional details on active research areas:
- Identifying new resistance genes through genome analysis and mutant screens
- Understanding signaling pathways involved in pathogen detection and defense activation
- Investigating effector proteins secreted by pathogens to promote infection or trigger resistance
- Developing genome editing approaches to engineer synthetic resistance genes