LAUSR

Disease resistance is without argument the best technological approach to control diseases in plants since no management input is required by the grower once the resistant variety has been planted. The biggest problems in using disease resistance lie in the facts that effective sources of resistance are not available for many important diseases, especially those caused by necrotrophic pathogens; and that pathogen populations adapt to the utilisation of novel sources of resistance, most notably for air-borne biotrophic pathogens. Several biotechnological approaches have been developed to produce disease resistant plants, the most recent known as NBT – New Breeding Technologies. This review focuses on recent advances in those technologies which adapt the knowledge obtained using molecular genetic approaches for the study of plant-microbe interactions to combat plant diseases.