CONCEPTS OF

PLANT DISEASE
Lei Ann T. Punla, MSA
Instructor
BSAgribusiness 2
Whetzel – 1929
 A “physiological malfunctioning caused by animate agents” .
 He called malfunctioning caused by nonliving or inanimate agents as
“physiogenic disease”.

Stakman and Harrar – 1957

 “Any deviation from normal growth or structure of plants that is sufficiently
pronounced and permanent to produce visible symptoms or to impair quality
or economic value”.

Horsfall and Dimond

 A “malfunctioning process caused by continuous irritation”. The authors
emphasize the difference between disease and injury.
 A disease progresses over a period of time while injury is an instantaneous
action such as the breaking of a twig.
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 Merril – 1980
 “A dynamic interaction between an organism and its environment which
results in abnormal physiological and often morphological or
neurological changes in the organism”.
 Agrios – 1978
 “Any disturbance brought about by a pathogen or an environmental
factor which interferes with manufacture, translocation or utilization of
food, mineral nutrients and water in such a way that the affected plant
changes in appearance and yields less than a normal healthy plant of
the same variety”.
 Agrios – 1998
 “Any malfunctioning of host cells and tissues that results from
continuous irritation by a pathogen or an environmental factor and leads
to the development of symptoms”.
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CLASSIFICATION OF PLANT
DISEASES
A rational grouping of plant diseases is helpful in the identification and
subsequent of a particular disease.
I. According to affected plant organ
 Related to the physiological processes affected.
 Examples: root diseases, foliage diseases, fruit diseases, stem
diseases

II. According to symptoms

 Examples: leaf spots, rusts, smuts, anthracnose, mosaics, wilts, fruit
rots
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III. According to type of affected plant
 Examples: vegetable diseases, diseases of forest trees, diseases of
field crops, diseases of ornamentals

IV. According to type of pathogen that causes the disease

a. Infectious disease
 Examples:
 Diseases caused by fungi
 Diseases caused by mycoplasmas
 Diseases caused by bacteria
 Diseases caused by viruses
 Diseases caused by viroids
 Diseases caused by protozoa
 Diseases caused by parasitic flowering plants
 Diseases caused by nematodes 5
b. Non-infectious disease
 Examples:
 Diseases caused by non-parasitic or abiotic agents such as
 Extremely high or excessively low temperatures
 Unfavorable oxygen relations
 Unfavorable moisture conditions
 Nutrient deficiencies
 Mineral toxicities
 Air pollution
 Toxicity of pesticides, etc.

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Note: Classification according to type of pathogen is preferred
by many workers because of the etiological or causal basis.
Knowledge of the causal agent of a particular disease gives
one an idea of how the disease develops and spreads as well
as of the control measures that are most likely to be effective.

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COMMON TERMS IN PLANT
PATHOLOGY

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a. Pathogen – any agent (biotic or abiotic) that causes a disease. The term is
generally used to refer to a living organism, such as fungus, or bacterium,
that causes disease.
b. Parasite – an organism which depends wholly or partly on another living
organism for its food. Most parasites are pathogens.
c. Obligate parasite – an organism that is restricted to subsist on living
organisms and attacks only living tissues.
d. Facultative parasite – an organism which has the ability to become a
parasite although it is a saprophyte.
e. Saprophyte – an organism that lives on dead organic or inorganic matter.
f. Facultative saprophyte – an organism that has the ability to become a
saprophyte but is ordinarily a parasite.
g. Host – a plant being attacked by a parasite. A food relationship with a
parasite (pathogen) is implied.

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h. Suscept – a plant that is susceptible to a disease whether or not the
pathogen is parasitic.
i. Pathogenicity – the capacity of a pathogen to cause disease.
j. Pathogenesis – disease development in the plant.
k. Virulence – refers to the quantitative amount of disease that an
isolate of a given pathogen can cause in a given group of plants
in terms of size of lesions or number of lesions.
l. Aggressiveness – measures the rate at which virulence is
expressed by a given pathogenic isolate.
m. Disease resistance – inherent ability of an organism to overcome in
any degree the effects of a pathogen.
n. Susceptibility – opposite of resistance; the inability to overcome the
effects of a pathogen.
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o. Tolerance – ability of a plant to withstand the severe effects of the
pathogen without experiencing a severe reduction in yield.
p. Masked symptoms – symptoms not expressed due to unfavorable
condition.
q. Symptomless carrier – a host that do not show symptom irrespective
of environment.

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THE DISEASE TRIANGLE

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 THANK YOU
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