Fungal Plant Pathogen Control

Fungal pathogens such as *Botrytis cinerea* cause devastating crop losses worldwide, and the primary line of defense—chemical fungicides—is increasingly undermined as pathogen populations evolve resistance through mutations in target proteins like succinate dehydrogenase or cytochrome bc1, the molecular targets of succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors and strobilurin fungicides respectively. Researchers work to characterize these resistance mechanisms at the molecular level, track how resistance spreads through field populations under selection pressure, and design management strategies—such as fungicide rotations and mixtures—that slow its emergence. A central open question is how quickly and through what evolutionary pathways pathogens can accumulate multiple resistance mechanisms simultaneously, and whether fitness costs associated with resistance mutations meaningfully limit their spread in the absence of fungicide pressure. Practical efforts are now focused on integrating molecular diagnostics for early resistance detection with predictive evolutionary models that can guide growers toward more durable protection strategies.

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45,389

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306,642

Keywords

Fungicide ResistancePlant PathogensEvolutionManagementMolecular MechanismsPhenylamide Fungicides