Understanding disease resistance genes in crops to secure future food production
A new understanding as to how plants defend themselves against some pathogens that cause crop diseases is proposed by researchers from the University of Hertfordshire to help scientists breed new, more successful disease-resistant agricultural crops. The new concept is called effector-triggered defence or ETD.Breeding agricultural crops for resistance against disease pathogens is essential in the quest to secure global food production. However, despite efforts to control them, crop diseases still account for fifteen percent of the losses in the world’s food production. Farmers spray their