A century of plant pathology: A retrospective view on understanding host-parasite interactions

The twentieth century has been productive for the science of plant patholog y and the field of host-parasite interactions-both in understanding how pat hogens and plant defense work and in developing more effective means of dis ease control. Early in the twentieth century, plant pathology adopted a phi losophy that encouraged basic scientific investigation of pathogens and dis ease defense. That philosophy led to the strategy of developing disease-res istant plants as a prima facie disease-control measure-and in the process s aved billions of dollars and avoided the use of tons of pesticides. Plant p athology rapidly adopted molecular cloning and its spin-off technologies, a nd these have fueled major advances in our basic understanding of plant dis eases. This knowledge and the development of efficient technologies for pro ducing transgenic plants convey optimism that plant diseases will be more e fficiently controlled in the twenty-first century.