SCIENCES DU VEGETAL

In this special issue of Current Plant Biology, we have compiled several original research and review articles that will provide insights into the advancement in the area of plant-pathogen interaction. These articles will surely enhance our current understanding of diseases caused by a variety of pathogens and new measures used to controls them.

In this special issue of Current Plant Biology, we have compiled several original research and review articles that will provide insights into the advancement in the area of plant-pathogen interaction. These articles will surely enhance our current understanding of diseases caused by a variety of pathogens and new measures used to controls them.

The first article of this special issue by Shao and Tian [1] describes a qPCR based approach to detect and quantify the growth of downy mildew pathogen, Peronospora belbahrii during infection in sweet basil. Sweet basil is an economically important popular herb used extensively in various cuisines throughout the world. This pathogen is threatening the cultivation of sweet basil due to lack of genetic resistance and pathogens ability to be distributed through seed. This disease was first reported in 1932 in Uganda and much later in Europe (2003). In the United States, it was first reported in 2007. This disease is significantly affecting the basil industry throughout the whole world.

Article by Chakraborty and Basak [2] describe new insights into Mungbean yellow mosaic India virus resistance by comparative transcriptome profiling of a resistant vs. susceptible Vigna mungo cultivar in response to MYMIV infection. Authors used suppression subtractive hybridization to identify differentially expressed transcripts and further verified these transcripts using qPCR.

A review article by Liu and Park [3] describe the interactions between plant roots and parasitic nematodes. Nematodes infestation results in high (∼14%) loss in crop production worldwide. Two genus, Meloidogyne spp. and Heterodera spp. alone cause ∼10% loss in yield, amounting to ∼80 billion US dollars loss. This review highlights the current status of research in this area and the direction of future research in this area.