1st Edition
Fungal Disease Resistance in Plants Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Genetic Engineering
Up-to-date, accurate information on recent developments in crop protection!
Fungal Disease Resistance in Plants: Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Genetic Engineering presents the latest developments in crop protection from fungal infection. Leading experts in botany, plant breeding, and plant pathology contribute their knowledge to help reduce and possibly prevent new outbreaks of devastating crop epidemics caused by fungi. With exciting new advances in molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetic engineering, this informative book will help researchers, professors, and students further their understanding of plant defenses.
Fungal Disease Resistance in Plants is your guide to understanding the various barriers that plants have developed through evolution and adaptation to protect themselves from invading fungal pathogens. Defenses include physical barriers such as thick cell walls and chemical compounds expressed by the plant when attacked. Still other plants have acquired proteins that play an important role in defense. This book discusses these evolutionary traits and introduces new scientific techniques to engineer resistance in plants that have no built-in protection.
Fungal Disease Resistance in Plants explores:
- cellular expression of resistance to fungal pathogens
- the hypersensitive response and its role in disease resistance
- induced plant resistance to fungal pathogens—mechanisms and practical applications
- pathogenesis-related proteins and their roles in resistance to fungal pathogens
- signal transduction—plant networks, delivery, and response to fungal infection
- fungus genes as they relate to disease susceptibility and resistance
- About the Editor
- Contributors
- Foreword (Sophien Kamoun)
- Preface
- Chapter 1. Signal Transduction in Plant Defense Responses to Fungal Infection (Dierk Scheel and Thorsten Nuernberger)
- Introduction and Background
- Signals and Signal Delivery in Plant-Fungus/Oomycete Interactions
- Signal Perception—A Complex Matter
- Cellular Signaling—A Matter of Networks
- Conclusions
- Chapter 2. Cellular Expression of Resistance to Fungal Plant Pathogens (Denny G. Mellersh and Michèle C. Heath)
- Introduction
- Background
- Detailed Review
- Use of Transgenic Plants to Study Expression of Resistance at the Cellular Level
- Current Work in Our Laboratory
- Concluding Remarks
- Chapter 3. The Hypersensitive Response and Its Role in Disease Resistance (Hans-Peter Stuible and Erich Kombrink)
- Introduction
- Features of the Hypersensitive Response
- Proteins Involved in Pathogen Recognition and Initiation of HR Cell Death
- Small Molecules Involved in Signaling and Execution of HR Cell Death
- Negative Regulatory Components
- Is Protein Degradation Important for Execution of HR Cell Death?
- The Role of Cell Organelles in HR Induction
- Is HR Cell Death Required for Resistance?
- Do Plant Pathogens Modulate the HR in an Active Manner?
- Development of Transgenic Plants: Exploitation of HR for Disease Control
- Conclusions and Future Directions
- Chapter 4. Fungal (A)Virulence Factors at the Crossroads of Disease Susceptibility and Resistance (N. Westerink, M. H. A. J. Joosten, and P. J. G. M. de Wit)
- Introduction
- Background
- Fungal (A)Virulence Genes with Genotype and Species Specificity
- Pathogens with Evolved Mechanisms to Counteract Plant Defense Responses
- Plant Genes that Confer Resistance Toward Fungi and Oomycetes
- Perception of Avr Gene Products by Resistant Plant Genotypes
- Development of Transgenic Plants That Display Broad Resistance Against Pathogens
- Conclusions and Future Directions
- Chapter 5. Pathogenesis-Related Proteins and Their Roles in Resistance to Fungal Pathogens (Jayaraman Jayaraj, Ajith Anand, and Subbaratnam Muthukrishnan)
- Introduction
- Classification of PR Proteins
- Nondefense Functions of PR Proteins and PR-Like Proteins
- Natural and Synthetic Elicitors of PR-Protein Genes
- Mechanisms That Protect Pathogens from PR Proteins
- Transgenic Plants Expressing Single Genes for PR Proteins
- Transgenic Plants with Combinations of PR Proteins
- Conclusions
- Chapter 6. Induced Plant Resistance to Fungal Pathogens: Mechanisms and Practical Applications (Ray Hammerschmidt)
- Introduction
- Background
- Mechanisms of Induced Resistance to Fungal Pathogens
- The Application of Induced Resistance
- Transgenic Plants and Induced Resistance to Fungi
- Current Research Program on Induced Resistance in Cucumber
- Conclusions
- Chapter 7. Genetic Engineering of Plants to Enhance Resistance to Fungal Pathogens (Zamir K. Punja)
- Introduction
- Genetic Engineering Approaches
- Activation of Plant Defense Responses
- Resistance Genes (R Genes)
- Challenges
- Index
- Reference Notes Included
Biography
Zamir Punja
