Plant genes as sources to improve pathogen resistance of cultivated plants

Abstract

Diseases cause large problem in agriculture that the growers usually try to overcome by chemical control. Unfortunately, the amount of applied chemicals increases in every year all over the world. Since the chemicals have numerous negative side-effects, the alternative techniques are welcome in crop production. Plenty of studies demonstrated that resistance genes regulate plant defense response to pathogen attack and infection. Beside the induced expression of resistance genes the disease responsiveness may also depend on plant susceptibility genes, presence in host of which is required for success of invasion. Breeding plant varieties integrating resistance genes or inhibiting the function of susceptibility genes significantly increase the disease resistance. In this manner the amount of pesticides applied for pathogen control can be reduced and crop production may turn into a much more environmentally friendly process.