ABSTRACT

Plant diseases are an important constraint on worldwide crop production, accounting for losses of 10-30% of the global harvest each year [1]. As a consequence, crop diseases represent a signicant threat to ensuring global food security. To feed the growing human population it will be necessary to double food production by 2050, which will require the sustainable intensication of world agriculture in an era of unpredictable climate change [2],[3]. Controlling the most important plant diseases represents one of the best means of delivering as much of the current productivity of crops as possible. To accomplish this task, a fundamental understanding of the biology of plant infection by disease-causing agents, such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi will be necessary [1],[2].