ABSTRACT

Introduction to plant microbes .................................................................................................. 214 Plant-microbes-associated insect vectors and diseases ......................................................... 216 Genomic-based detection, identication, and classication ................................................. 217 Plant microbe effectors and associated diseases ..................................................................... 218 Interference of plant microbes with plant developmental process ...................................... 220 Interferences of plant microbes with plant defense response ..............................................222 Cross talk among defense pathways ........................................................................................ 224 Counterdefense strategies of pathogens ..................................................................................225 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 226 References .................................................................................................................................... 226

through polymerase chain reaction by developing the genomic sequence-specic oligonucleotides. Pathogen attack leads to major alterations in plant gene activities and metabolic processes, gene expression, DNA methylation, and host cell metabolism. Plants tend to defend themselves through a variety of defense strategies such as infestation alert signals, posttranscriptional gene silencing, systemic acquired resistance, pathogenesis-related proteins, and production of signaling phytohormones such as ethylene, jasmonic acid, and salicyclic acid. Although plants have these various resistance mechanisms, which they use against the pathogens, the pathogens have also evolved a number of strategies to defeat the plant defense systems through certain effector molecules that help them to colonize and multiply in host. In addition to these mechanisms, both plants and pathogens possess counterdefense mechanisms by which they can make their survival and growth possible. Thus, the plantmicrobe interactions consist of a wide array of mysterious complex connections, most of which are yet to be discovered and unraveled by science. Only then can we make it possible to uplift our agriculture and protect plants from these life-threatening microorganisms.