KADUNA POLYTECHNIC, KADUNA

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED BIOLOGY

COURSE CODE: STB 212
COURSE TITLE: PATHOLOGY
CONTENT: CONCEPT OF PLANT PATHOLOGY & FUNGAL INFECTION
Definition and History of Plant Pathology
Plant Pathology
Plant pathology or phytopathology is the science, which deals with the plant diseases. It is
concerned with health and productivity of plants. Phytopathology is the branch of agriculture,
botanical or biological science which deals with the cause, etiology (aetiology), resulting in
losses and management methods of plant diseases.
Plant pathology can also be defined as the study of the nature, cause and prevention of plant
diseases. It is related to genetics, soil science, biochemistry, biotechnology and it has the
following major objectives:
1. To study biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living and environmental) causes of diseases or
disorders.
2. To study the mechanisms of disease development by pathogens.
3. To study the plant (host)-pathogen interaction in relation to environment.
4. To develop methods of management of plant diseases.

Plant disease terminologies:

Pathogenesis
The word ‘pathogenesis’ comes from the Greek pathos, "disease", and genesis, "creation". The
term pathogenesis means step by step development of a disease and the chain of events leading
to that disease due to a series of changes in the structure and /or function of a cell/tissue/organ
being caused by a microbial, chemical or physical agent.
The pathogenesis of a disease is the mechanism by which an etiological factor causes the
disease. The term can also be used to describe the development of the disease, such as acute,
chronic and recurrent. There are several chemical weapons secreted by pathogens that are
utilized as they carry out their activities. These weapons include enzymes, toxins, growth
regulators and polysaccharides.

1
Parasites
Parasites are organisms that infect other living beings. They live in or on the body of another
living being, the host and obtain shelter and nourishment from it.
Plant diseases
Plant diseases are recognized by the symptoms (external or internal) produced by them or by sick
appearance of the plant. The term plant disease signifies the condition of the plant due to disease
or cause of the disease. Plant disease is mainly defined in terms of the damage caused to the
plant or to its organ.
Types of Plant Diseases
There are two types of plant diseases: those whose primary causal agents are biotic (infectious),
and those that are abiotic (non infectious).
1. Noninfectious (Abiotic) Diseases
Examples of abiotic diseases include:
 Nutrient Deficiencies: Lack of essential elements such as iron or zinc may cause plant
foliage to yellow.
 Lack of or Excess Soil Moisture: plant can become dehydrated during drought periods,
and may suffocate when poor drainage cuts out oxygen around the roots.
 Too Low or Too High Temperature -- Plants grown out of their adapted habitat can be
injured or killed by extremes in temperature.
 Air Pollution -- Ozone, sulfur dioxide and automobile exhaust fumes can injure plants.
 Soil Acidity or Alkalinity -- Adverse soil pH can injure plants
 Mechanical Damage - Girdling from roots, nylon twine or wire; injury from
construction

2. Biotic Diseases

Biotic (infectious) diseases occur when a host plant is invaded by a living organism. Most of
these organisms are microbes, and can also be referred to as parasites which attack plants. A host
is a plant which has been invaded by a parasite. A parasite is an organism which obtains its
nutrients from living organisms, often plants. In the process of feeding, the parasite not only
consumes plant tissue, which weakens the host, but also produces toxins, enzymes, and growth
regulating substances which disturb the normal metabolic processes in the plant. In some cases
the parasite actually blocks the movement of food and water in the plant's conducting tissue. Any
2
of these disorders caused by a parasite will result in a diseased plant. Microbes are the major
biotic pathogens of plants. Therefore, the major groups of microbial plant pathogens are:
 Fungi
 Bacteria
 Viruses
 Phytoplasma (bacteria-like)
 Viroid (virus-like)
Parasitic flowering plants are also plant pathogens. Much can be learned by studying the
pathogens as groups, and a working knowledge of those groups is needed for an understanding of
plant pathology. Knowing how a pathogen obtains nourishment is important to understanding the
disease process and developing control strategies. Most microbial pathogens are primarily
parasites, but some are mainly saprophytes and can sometimes cause disease. Saprophytes
usually feed on non-living organic matter. Most of the microbial pathogens have some
saprophytic abilities, which are important in survival and in the disease process. Pathogens with
saprophytic ability can be cultured away from their host plant. While some can only grow in
nature on their live host, (e.g. powdery mildew and rust fungi) and are called obligate parasites
(obligate parasites feed and reproduce on living plant material).

Diseases Caused by Fungi

A fungus is a multicellular organism made up of thread-like material known as mycelium. Fungi
cannot make their own food, so in the process of obtaining food from higher plants; it injures
roots, stems, leaves, and fruits. This action causes what we know as plant diseases. Not all fungi,
however, cause disease.

Penetration of Plant Tissue

In order for infection to occur, the spore must germinate and penetrate the plant tissue. When a
spore germinates on moist tissue, it enters the tissue by direct penetration, through natural
openings such as stomata or lenticels, or via wounds.
Penetration through Stomata: Some fungi penetrate through stomata (natural openings).
Fungi which enter through stomata can attack older and tougher leaves. Rust fungi such as cedar
apple rust or bean rust penetrate via stomata.

3
Penetration through Wounds: Some fungi enter plant tissue only through wounds.
Pruning wounds make an excellent avenue of penetration. Many fruit rots occur when fungal
spores come in contact with bruised areas.

Examples of fungal diseases:

Early and late leaf spot of groundnut
CAUSAL AGENT
The fungus that causes early leaf spot is Mycosphaerella arachidis and late leaf spot is
Mycosphaerella berkeleyi. These are the sexual stages of the fungi. However, these fungi exist
mostly in their asexual states, Cercospera arachidicola and Cercosporidium personatum,
respectively.
Symptoms
Spots are irregular or circular, 1 to 10 mm in diameter (bigger). Brown, chlorotic halo around the
spots present, lower surface of the spot is light brown, premature shedding of leaves. While late
leaf spot involves defoliation.

Disease cycle

4
 Leaf spot of groundnut life cycle

Smuts of Maize
Common smuts of corn is a fungal disease easily identified by tumor-like galls that form on
actively growing host tissues and contain dark, sooty teliospores.
CAUSAL AGENT
The causative agent is Ustilago maydis
Symptoms
Small dark spot on stems, dark swellings on stems, leaf distortion and distortion of flower
stamen.
Disease cycle
The life cycle of U. maydis includes three distinct stages. Diploid teliospores are formed in galls
on infected hosts and are the overwintering propagules of the fungus. They are spherical to
ellipsoid, olive-brown to black in color and heavily echinulated, i.e., covered with tiny spines.
When a teliospore germinates, it forms a septate promycelium, undergoes meiosis, and forms
haploid sporidia (also called basidiospores) that usually have a single nucleus. The haploid
sporidia are easily maintained in culture which many considered to be the saprophytic stage of
the fungus. Sporidial cultures can be propagated on many different media where they display
considerable variation in morphology, color, size and growth . The non-infectious sporidia bud in
a yeast-like manner. Under appropriate environmental conditions, genetically compatible
sporidia mate and form dikaryotic infection hyphae; cells in this third stage are pathogenic and
can infect corn and teosinte.

5
 Maize smuts life cycle

Control of maize smut

 Crop rotation
 Sanitation
 Seed treatment
 Application of fungicides
 Modification of fertility

Damping off of vegetables (tomato, brinjal, chillies, etc.) and tobacco

Damping off is a special name given to denote wilting of young seedlings in nursery. The rapid
death and collapse of very young seedlings in the seedbed is called damping off.
Causative agent
The disease is caused by Pythium aphanidermatum

6
Symptoms
It is generally observed two weeks after sowing. Water-soaked lesions appear on the collar
region of seedlings; browning and shriveling of stem tissues at soil level in the collar region;
toppling down of seedlings in the nursery; ultimate death of sick seedling.
Life cycle of Pythium aphanidermatum
Disease cycle
Oospore or encysted zoospore germinates and produce germ tubes or saprophytic mycelium
which come in contact with seed or seedling tissues of host plant and enter by direct penetration.
Pectinolytic enzymes of the fungus dissolve the pectins (holding cells together) resulting in
maceration of tissues. The mycelium grows between and through the cells. Proteolytic and or
cellulolytic enzymes causing complete collapse and disintegration of cell walls break down the
protoplasts of invaded cells. As a result, the infected seeds / young seedlings are killed and
turned into a rotten mass.

Life cycle Pythium aphanidermatum

BACTERIAL DISEASES
Bacteria are minute single-celled microbes closely related to fungi. Plant pathogenic bacteria do
not produce spores. They reproduce by simple cell division. The tiny rod-shaped cells reproduce
very rapidly. Cells may divide every 20 to 30 minutes. At this rate, one cell will give rise to 17
million cells in 12 hours. This rapid growth rate accounts for the seemingly explosive nature of

7
bacterial diseases. Large cell numbers confer great bacterial cell surface area for release of
enzymes, toxins, or slime. These bacterial products are responsible for much of the damage
caused by bacterial infection.
Bacteria have been defined by Clifton as "extremely minute, rigid essentially unicellular
organisms, free of true chlorophyll and generally devoid of any photosynthetic pigments; most
commonly multiplying asexually by simple transverse fission, the resulting cells being of equal
or nearly equal size".
How Are Bacteria Spread?
Blowing Rain: Bacteria ooze out of infected tissue and form a mass of sticky material on the
plant surface. Rain drops hit the bacteria and splatter them to new infection sites.
Insects: In the process of pollinating plants, bees crawl through the bacterial ooze and then
deposit the organism in blooms. This is the primary means of spreading fire blight of apple and
pear from tree to tree. Some bacteria live inside insect vectors and are spread from plant to plant.
People: While picking beans or suckering tomatoes, people can come in contact with bacteria
and transfer them from plant to plant on their hands. Never work in the garden when plants are
wet.
Seed: Bacteria can live from year to year inside seeds. When infected seeds are shared between
gardeners, bacterial diseases can spread. This is why seeds grown in a dry western climate are
clean. Avoid saving seeds from your garden unless you are preserving a unique variety.
Bacterial spot of tomato and pepper

Bacterial spot is one of the most devastating diseases of pepper and tomato grown in warm,
moist environment. Once present in the crop it’s almost impossible to control the disease and
prevent major fruit loss when environmental conditions remain favourable.

The causative agent

Bacterial spot is caused by several species of gram-negative bacteria in the genus Xanthomonas
e.g Xanthomonas visicatoria, X. axonopodis etc.

Symptoms

 small, yellow-green lesions on young leaves

 pale-green, water-soaked areas on fruit

8
Disease cycle and Epidemiology

The pathogens have been reported to persist in association with roots of few weed species.
Weeds however, are considered to play only a minor role in pathogen survival. Volunteer tomato
plants and possibly pepper volunteers are potentially important sources of inoculum in some
locations. In colder regions where vegetative material is killed, the bacteria survive very poorly,
if at all. In these areas, reintroduction is primarily on contaminated seed or infected transplants.

Although bacterial spot is a disease of warm, humid regions, it can develop in arid, irrigated
regions. The bacteria can be spread by rain or by overhead irrigation. Bacteria also may be
spread in water droplets when pesticides are applied with high-pressure sprayers.

Bacteria enter through stomata on the leaf surfaces and through wounds on the leaves and fruit,
such as those caused by abrasion from sand particles and wind. Prolonged periods of high
relative humidity favor infection and disease development. Symptom development is delayed or
eliminated when relative humidity remains low for several days after infection.

LIFE CYCLE OF TOMATO AND PEPPER BACTERIAL SPOT

9
Management/control of Bacterial Spot of Pepper and Tomato

 Use of pathogen-free seed or disease-free transplants.

 Crop rotation

Bacterial blight of soy bean

Causative agent
The disease is caused by a bacterium called Pseudomonas savastanoi.

Symptoms
Small, angular, reddish-brown lesion on the leaves
Disease cycle
The bacteria survive winters in crop residue and seeds and are spread rain and wind. The
bacterium can also survive on leaf season and infect plants when conditions are suitable.
Infection occurs through stomata and wounds. Cool temperature favour bacterial blight while
warmer temperature will slow or stop disease development.

10
 Bacterial blight spot life cycle
Control method
 Use of disease-free seed or disease-free transplants.
 Crop rotation

CITRUS CANKER

Citrus canker is a serious bacterial disease of commercial varieties of citrus, and relatives. The
disease has resulted in heavy economic losses to citrus industry across the globe.

Causative agent
The disease is caused by a bacterium called Xanthomonas citri.

Symptoms
 Warty, rust-brown spots on leaves.
 Bright yellow halo
 Scabby canker on fruit
Disease cycle

11
Citrus canker is most severe in hot, wet areas. Strong winds, rain and or on infected fruits,
leaves, people and equipment help spread the bacterium from tree to tree. It infects host plant
through the stomata or wounds.

Control method
Using sterile planting materials and removing diseased plant

VIRAL DISEASES OF PLANT

Virus is a submicroscopic, transmissible, intercellular, obligate parasite and consists of nucleic
acid (either RNA or DNA), which is typically surrounded by a protein coat. They are less than
200 millimicron and cannot be grown in artificial media and require living host cell for
multiplication. They have both living and nonliving properties.
Living characteristics of Virus includes:
 Ability to cause disease,
 Reproduce,
 Mutate
 And have genetic materials.
Non-living characteristics includes:
 The lack of cellular structure
 Enzymatic activities,
 Respiratory activities

12
Nearly half of the plant virus may be of elongated (rigid rod/flexuous threads) and spherical
(isometric / polyhedral) and the remaining are cylindrical bacillus like rods in shape and small
enough pass through bacterial filters but too small to be seen under light microscope.
1. Rigid rod: (E.g.) Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) and Tobacco rattle Virus (TRV)
2. Flexuous rod: (E.g.) Potato Virus X (PVX), Bean Common Mosaic Virus (BCMV).
3. Filamentous rod: (E.g.) Tenuiviruses likes Rice Grassy Stunt (RGSV) and Rice Stripe Virus
(RSV).
4. Isometric: (E.g.) Rice Tungro Spherical Virus (RTSV), Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV),
Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV).
5. Bacilliform: (E.g.) Rice Tungro Bacilliform Virus (RTBV), Banana streak virus (BSV) and
Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus (CCSV).

Vector
Vector is an organism that carries and transmits pathogen (inoculum) to a plant. Vectors may be
insect, nematodes and fungi, etc.

Symptoms
Symptoms like chlorosis, mosaic, streak, vein clearing, vein banding, leaf crinkle, leaf curl,
enation, necrosis, dwarfing, rosette, bunchy top, twisting etc. are produced in crop plants.

Aphids
Aphids are the most important insect vectors of plant viruses and transmit the great majority of
all stylet - borne viruses. As a rule several aphid species can transmit the same stylet – borne
virus and the same aphid species can transmit several viruses, but in many cases the vector-virus
relationship is quite specific. Aphids generally acquire the stylet-borne virus after feeding on a
diseased plant for only a few seconds (30 seconds or less) and can transmit the virus after
transfer to and feeding on a healthy plant for a similarly short time of a few seconds. The length
of time aphids remain viruliferous after acquisition of a stylet-borne virus varies from a few
minutes to several hours, after which they can no longer transmit the virus. In few cases of aphid
transmission of circulative viruses, aphids cannot transmit the virus immediately but must wait
several hours after the acquisition feeding, but once they start to transmit the virus, they continue
to do so for many days following the removal of the insects from the virus source. In aphid
transmitting stylet-borne viruses, the virus seems to be borne on the tips of the stylets, it is easily
lost through the scouring that occurs during probing of host cells, and it does not persist through

13
the moult or egg. The examples of aphid transmitted plant viruses are given in the following
Table.
S/N Virus Vector Type of transmission
1 Bean common Mosaic Acyrthosiphon pisum Non persistent
2 Bean yellow mosaic A. pisum Non – persistent
3 Citrus tristeza Toxoptera citricida Non – persistent
4 Pea enation mosaic A. pisum Persistent
5 Beet yellows M. Persicae Semi persistent

Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD)

Cocoa swollen shoot virus disease is transmitted by infectious mealy bugs and infected bud
wood. The risk of spreading the disease is reduced if mealy bugs and live plant material are not
transported deliberately or accidentally from place to place.
CSSVD is a serious constraint to the production of cocoa in West Africa, particularly in Ghana
where the disease was first recognized in 1936. Several different strains of the virus exist and can
cause defoliation, dieback of the plant and severe yield losses. In susceptible varieties such as
West African Amelonado cocoa, the most severe strains of the virus can kill the plant within 2-3
years.

Symptoms
Cocoa swollen shoot virus can infect cocoa plants at any stage of development. The disease
causes a wide range of symptoms depending on the strain of the virus, the stage of infection and
the susceptibility of the cocoa variety. Amelonado cocoa varieties are particularly susceptible to
infection and diseased plants show the following characteristic symptoms:
• Reddening of primary veins or ‘banding’ in young leaves
• Yellow banding along the main veins of leaves
• Vein clearing in leaves, sometimes producing a ‘fernlike’ pattern
• Chlorosis or flecking and mottling of mature leaves
• Stem and root swellings (some mild strains of the virus do not cause swellings in infected
plants)
• Abnormally shaped pods, usually smaller and spherical

14
Distribution
The virus currently occurs mainly in West Africa: Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria,
Sierra Leone and Togo. The virus has also been reported in Sri Lanka
Mode of transmission
Cocoa swollen shoot virus (CSSV) can be transmitted during feeding by several different species
of mealy bug that feed on the sap of cocoa plants. The infected young of both sexes and adult
females can also spread the virus to adjacent healthy trees by crawling across interlocking
branches. Mealy bugs can also infect trees further afield, as they can be transported by wind or
by animals, insects and humans. CSSV is not thought to be transmitted through cocoa seeds, but
the virus has been transmitted to other cocoa plants experimentally by grafting and mechanical
inoculation. The virus has also been found to infect and cause disease in alternative host trees
grown in and near cocoa farms. Once a cocoa tree becomes infected with CSSV it cannot be
cured.
Management of CSSVD
Several methods for managing CSSVD have been used with varying degrees of success: the use
of barrier crops, eradication or ‘cutting-out’ of diseased plants and the development of tolerant or
less susceptible varieties of cocoa.

Cassava mosaic virus on cassava (Tapioca)

Symptoms
Mosaic mottling on leaves, chlorosis of leaves; distortion of leaves; twisting of leaves; stunting
of plants and tuber splitting.
Vector
White fly - Bemisia tabaci

Koch’s postulates’
During the late 19th century a bacteriologist called Robert Koch laid down a set of rules for
confirming that an organism is the cause of a disease. These are now known as ‘Koch’s
postulates’.
When a plant becomes infected with a fungus (or any other disease causing microorganism), it is
likely to become weakened and therefore more susceptible to infection by other microbes. So

15
how do us plant pathologists work out what pathogen has caused a particular disease? We have
to apply Koch’s postulates to the disease. To determine Koch’s postulates:
(a) the organism must be consistently associated with the lesions of the disease;
(b) the organism must be isolated from the lesions and grown in pure culture;
(c) the organism from pure culture must be re-inoculated into the healthy host and must cause the
same disease as was originally observed;
(d) the organism must be re-isolated into culture and shown to be identical to the organism
originally isolated.

Plant diseases management

General principles of plant diseases management – Avoidance, exclusion,
eradication, protection and therapy, immunization
Methods for plant diseases control were first classified by Whetzel (1929) into exclusion,
eradication, protection and immunization. Further advances in plant pathology leading to
development of newer methods. Two more principles –
1. Avoidance and
2. Therapy were created
Avoidance
It involves avoiding disease by planting at time when, or in areas where inoculums is absent or
ineffective due to environmental conditions. The major aim is to enable the host to avoid contact
with the pathogen or to ensure that the susceptible stage of the plant does not coincide with
favourable conditions for the pathogen. The main practices under avoidance are choice of
geographical area, selection of the field, choice of sowing/ planting time, selection of seed and
planting material, short duration / disease escaping varieties and modification of
agronomic/cultural practices.
Exclusion
It means preventing the inoculums from entering or establishing in a field or area where it does
not exist. Seed certification, crop inspection, eradication of inoculums and / or insect vectors, and
quarantine measures are some of the means of preventing the spread for pathogens.
Eradication

16
The process of reducing, inactivating, eliminating or destroying inoculums at the source, either
from a region or from an individual plant in which it is already established is termed as
eradication. Eradication involves eliminating the pathogen from infested areas; the magnitude of
the operation involved may vary considerably. The practices invariably employed to achieve
eradication of inoculums include eradication of alternate and / or collateral hosts, crop rotations,
field sanitations, heat or chemical treatments of plant materials or soil, biological control etc.
Protection
The protection of infection courts against the inoculums of many fast spreading infectious
pathogen, brought by wind from neighboring fields or any other distant place of survival.
Principles of avoidance, exclusion and eradication may not be sufficient to prevent the contact of
host with pathogen, thus development of the disease is imminent. Measures are necessary to
protect host plants from invading inoculums. It can be achieved by creating toxic barrier between
the plant surface and the inoculums. Methods employed to achieve such results are chemical
sprays, dusts, modification of environment, and modification of host nutrition.
Host resistance
It utilizes in – built mechanism to resist various activities of pathogen. The infection or
subsequent damage by pathogen can be rendered ineffective through genetic manipulation or by
chemotherapy. The host resistance can also be induced by use of certain biotic and abiotic
factors. The discovery of Mendelian laws of inheritance and developments in plant breeding
techniques have helped in developing crop varieties resistant to specific pathogen or group of
pathogens. The classical breeding techniques include selection, mutation and hybridization. Use
of biotechnological tools such as tissue culture, genetic engineering and protoplast fusion are
being used to develop resistant cultivars of various economically important crops.
Therapy
It is the treatment of infected host plant, which is attempted in case of economically important
horticulture plants. As a principle of plant disease control, it provides an opportunity to cure or
rejuvenate the diseased host plant by use of physical or chemical agents. The first five of these
principles are mainly preventive (prophylactic) and constitute the major components of plant
disease management. They are applied to the population of plants before infection takes place.
Therapy is a curative procedure and is applied to individuals after infection has taken place.
Under the concept of disease management these principles have been classified into
following five categories:
1. Management of physical environment (cultural control)

17
2. Management of associated micro biota (biological antagonism)
3. Management of host genes (host resistance)
4. Management with chemicals (Chemical control)
5. Management with therapy (Physical, chemical etc.)
Management of pathogen involves the practices directed to exclude, reduce or eradicate
inoculums. Management of the host involves the practices directed to improve plant vigor and
induce resistance through nutrition, introduction of genetic resistance through breeding and
providing need based protection by chemical means. Management of environment involves the
practices that modify the environment which is not favorable to pathogen or disease development
and does not predispose host to attack.

18