Dissecting the disease triangle of plant pathology
R. BART (1) (1) Donald Danforth Plant Science, U.S.A.

The disease severity triangle, which simply states that the host, the pathogen and the environment all contribute to observed disease severity, is the central pillar of host-microbe interacts. However, for most pathosystems, a comprehensive understanding of how the three sides interact is lacking and this is especially true for under-studied pathosystems important within poorer communities. Such deficits in understanding prevents progress towards disease control strategies. Such is the case for cassava bacterial blight, incited by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis, which is an important disease across sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of this disease is reported to vary from mild symptoms with minimal effects on yield to 100% crop losses. These fluctuations in disease severity are widely regarded as dictated by environmental conditions, but little concrete data regarding the conditions that lead to disease epidemics exist. This research aims to tease apart the disease triangle describing cassava bacterial blight. Diversity within the host and pathogen are considered as well as variable environmental conditions achieved within controlled environment chambers. Several exciting new phenotyping techniques will be described as well as recent progress adapting genome editing technologies to cassava.    

Abstract Number: C3-6, P20-718
Session Type: Concurrent