History of Plant Pathology PDF

Histor y of PLANT PATHOLOGY Prepared by: Mellprie B. Marin, PhD PRE- SCIENTIFIC PERIOD  HISTORY Greeks and Hebrews (500 BC – 280 BC) “Diseases to crops were God’s punishment for their sins; also attributed to bad weather and unfavorable conditions.” ...

Histor y of PLANT PATHOLOGY Prepared by: Mellprie B. Marin, PhD PRE- SCIENTIFIC PERIOD  HISTORY Greeks and Hebrews (500 BC – 280 BC) “Diseases to crops were God’s punishment for their sins; also attributed to bad weather and unfavorable conditions.”  HISTORY Deuteronomy 28:22 Yahweh will afflict you with the wasting diseases and with the fever and with the inflammation and with the scorching heat and with the sword and with the blight and with the mildew, and they shall pursue you {until you perish}.  HISTORY Romans (320 BC – 286 BC) – held festivals (Robigalia) to appease their rust god Robigus  HISTORY Aristotle, Homer and Theophrastus – recorded diseases such as: blight, mildew, rusts and blasts  Homer Aristotle  HISTORY blasts of Rice  HISTORY blights  HISTORY mildews  HISTORY rusts  HISTORY Theophrastus (“Father of Botany”) – recorded diseases of grains, trees and vegetables in his book Historia Plantarum  HISTORY Pliny the Elder – wrote about blight and rust; recommended early sowing of grains allowed wheat and barley to escape rusts and other diseases  HISTORY Pliny the Elder –  HISTORY BEGINNINGS and ADVANCES in SCIENTIFIC STUDIES  HISTORY Hans and Zaccharias Jansen – invented the compound microscope in 1590  HISTORY hand lens spectacles telescope  HISTORY Robert Hooke (1665)– illustrated in detail a plant pathogenic microscopic fungus  HISTORY Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1683)– found bacteria, protozoa and other microorganisms in water  Pier Antonio Micheli (1729)– described several genera of fungi and made illustrations of fruiting bodies and spores in Nova Plantarum Genera  Heinrich Anton de Bary – fungi are the cause and not the result of plant disease; acceptance of the Germ Theory; this made him the “Father of Plant Pathology”  Thomas Burrill – studied bacteria and proved that these can incite disease in plants  Martinus Beijerinck(1898) – plant diseases are caused by very small entities that could pass through bacterial filters “Father of Virology”  John Turberville Needham(1743) – first to observe nematodes inside wheat galls Nathan Cobb (1859) – provided the foundations for nematode taxonomy and described over 1000 different nematode species Pierre Marie Alexis Millardet (1882) – discovered Bordeaux mixture, a highly effective fungicide; - formed the foundation for chemical control of plant diseases - protecting grape vineyards from downy mildew fungus (Plasmopara viticola) Van der Plank (1963) – published a book (Plant Diseases: Epidemics and Control) Plant Disease Epidemiology – the study of disease increase in plant populations