Mechanism of plant-microbe interaction and its utilization in disease-resistance breeding for modern agriculture

Plant diseases pose a major and constant threat to crop production and food security in modern agriculture. While application of pesticides can be a cost to the environment and human health, development and utilization of resistant cultivars is the most effective, economical, and eco-friendly approach to disease control. Using resistant cultivars is especially important for organic agriculture. Increasing breakthroughs have been made in understanding the mechanism of plant-microbe interaction. A current challenge now is how to apply the new knowledge to more effectively create disease-resistant crop cultivars. Integration of plant breeding and plant pathology is necessary to underpin crop improvement for food and other plant-based production. In this review, we summarize our current understanding on the mechanism of plant-microbe interaction and discuss the strategies for disease-resistance breeding of crop cultivars. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.