The persistent threat of emerging plant disease pandemics to global food security

Ristaino, Jean Beagle; Anderson, Pamela K.; Bebber, Daniel P.; Brauman, Kate A.; Cunniffe, Nik J.; Fedoroff, Nina V.; Finegold, Cambria; Garrett, Karen A.; Gilligan, Christopher A.; Jones, Chris; Martin, Michael D.; MacDonald, Graham K.; Neenan, Patricia; Records, Angela R.; Schmale, David G.; Tateosian, Laura; Wei, Qingshan

doi:10.1073/pnas.2022239118

Cited by 377 publications

(245 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(104 reference statements)

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“…Other examples of crops improved using wild relatives include rice, maize, and potato ( 5 ). Indeed, in a world of global movement of pests and pathogens ( 46 ) and changing climate, it is difficult to overstate the long-term importance of wild crop relatives to crop improvement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacy genetics of Arachis cardenasii in the peanut crop shows the profound benefits of international seed exchange

Bertioli

Clevenger

Godoy

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The narrow genetics of most crops is a fundamental vulnerability to food security. This makes wild crop relatives a strategic resource of genetic diversity that can be used for crop improvement and adaptation to new agricultural challenges. Here, we uncover the contribution of one wild species accession, Arachis cardenasii GKP 10017, to the peanut crop (Arachis hypogaea) that was initiated by complex hybridizations in the 1960s and propagated by international seed exchange. However, until this study, the global scale of the dispersal of genetic contributions from this wild accession had been obscured by the multiple germplasm transfers, breeding cycles, and unrecorded genetic mixing between lineages that had occurred over the years. By genetic analysis and pedigree research, we identified A. cardenasii–enhanced, disease-resistant cultivars in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. These cultivars provide widespread improved food security and environmental and economic benefits. This study emphasizes the importance of wild species and collaborative networks of international expertise for crop improvement. However, it also highlights the consequences of the implementation of a patchwork of restrictive national laws and sea changes in attitudes regarding germplasm that followed in the wake of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Today, the botanical collections and multiple seed exchanges which enable benefits such as those revealed by this study are drastically reduced. The research reported here underscores the vital importance of ready access to germplasm in ensuring long-term world food security.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacy genetics of Arachis cardenasii in the peanut crop shows the profound benefits of international seed exchange

Bertioli

Clevenger

Godoy

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Crop diseases are a major limitation of food production [1], and while previous decades relied heavily on chemical control of pathogens and antagonists [2], transition toward more sustainable food production will require designing new control practices and pathogen attenuation strategies. Classical panel of disease management is broad, from developing resistant varieties or multiline strategies with diverse resistance and resilience levels to disease [3], controlling environmental triggers of epidemics via agronomy (till or no till effect on soil microfauna and flora [4], and potential irrigation impact on microclimate and thus pathogens [5]; yet, more recently, landscape has emerged as a potential complementary tool in diseases and pests control [6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of Pathogenic Fungi in Field Hedges: Vegetation Cover Is Differentially Impacted by Weather

2022

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Landscape effects might impede or increase spore dispersal and disease risk for crops, as trees and hedges buffer winds and can behave as spore traps, therefore limiting diffusion of fungi, or, on the contrary, behave as disease relay once vegetation is infected and become inoculum sources. In this study, we investigated weekly prevalence of the pathogenic fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides on guava tree leaves, differentiating impacts of leaf height on tree, age, and location within leaf. We first estimated differences in prevalence for each covariate, and then related infection rates to weather effects during the year. Our results highlighted a great variance of prevalence among individual trees, and a lower contamination of tree tops, as well as a tendency for greater odds of infection in tips of young leaves compared to older ones. Last, we show evidence that individual tree contaminations are associated with different disease dynamics: early and dispersal-based, late and growth-based, as well as with intermediate dynamic ranges. Pathogen infection dynamics will thus be greatly impacted by cover characteristics at local scale, and tree cover should not be perceived as homogeneously driving disease levels.

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“…To meet the overwhelming demand, a sustainable food production system may need to be developed by reducing the impact of crop diseases. Emerging plant diseases of crops caused by a variety of major phytopathogens, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and oomycetes, are provoking serious challenges, aggravating the global food security system of the contemporary era [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. There are more than 200 species of phytobacteria among phytopathogens that are responsible for significant crop losses during pre-harvesting, storage, and transportation [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deploying Viruses against Phytobacteria: Potential Use of Phage Cocktails as a Multifaceted Approach to Combat Resistant Bacterial Plant Pathogens

Farooq

Hussain

Shakeel

et al. 2022

Viruses

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Plants in nature are under the persistent intimidation of severe microbial diseases, threatening a sustainable food production system. Plant-bacterial pathogens are a major concern in the contemporary era, resulting in reduced plant growth and productivity. Plant antibiotics and chemical-based bactericides have been extensively used to evade plant bacterial diseases. To counteract this pressure, bacteria have evolved an array of resistance mechanisms, including innate and adaptive immune systems. The emergence of resistant bacteria and detrimental consequences of antimicrobial compounds on the environment and human health, accentuates the development of an alternative disease evacuation strategy. The phage cocktail therapy is a multidimensional approach effectively employed for the biocontrol of diverse resistant bacterial infections without affecting the fauna and flora. Phages engage a diverse set of counter defense strategies to undermine wide-ranging anti-phage defense mechanisms of bacterial pathogens. Microbial ecology, evolution, and dynamics of the interactions between phage and plant-bacterial pathogens lead to the engineering of robust phage cocktail therapeutics for the mitigation of devastating phytobacterial diseases. In this review, we highlight the concrete and fundamental determinants in the development and application of phage cocktails and their underlying mechanism, combating resistant plant-bacterial pathogens. Additionally, we provide recent advances in the use of phage cocktail therapy against phytobacteria for the biocontrol of devastating plant diseases.

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The persistent threat of emerging plant disease pandemics to global food security

Cited by 377 publications

References 75 publications

Legacy genetics of Arachis cardenasii in the peanut crop shows the profound benefits of international seed exchange

Legacy genetics of Arachis cardenasii in the peanut crop shows the profound benefits of international seed exchange

Dynamics of Pathogenic Fungi in Field Hedges: Vegetation Cover Is Differentially Impacted by Weather

Deploying Viruses against Phytobacteria: Potential Use of Phage Cocktails as a Multifaceted Approach to Combat Resistant Bacterial Plant Pathogens

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