Why preserve the biodiversity of plant pathogens?
International Congress of Plant Pathology President David Ingram gives several reasons in his paper introduced below, including: 1) they serve a role in revealing genetic diversity in potential breeding material and provide vital screens for the development of new cultivars, 2) they are the raw material for much of the basic scientific research on life cycles and genetics that generate an understanding of pathogen variation, evolution and population dynamics, and 3) they constitute a potentially significant biotechnological resource of particular importance to the genetic engineer. Most plant pathologists are employed to control or eradicate plant diseases from crops in agriculture, horticulture or forestry. However, every plant species, wild or cultivated, has one or more plant diseases naturally associated with it. Plant diseases are a normal part of every natural and semi-natural community, but their impact and role in these communities is usually unnoticed and unappreciated. In cro
