Question: what types of diseases do plants have

Hannah Blyth answered on 9 Mar 2020: last edited 9 Mar 2020 7:19 pm

Plant diseases can be grouped by what causes the disease: bacterial, fungal or viral. The diseases they cause range in severity from mild damage to the leaves, fruit or roots and some can even kill the plant. The fungus I work on, Zymoseptoria tritici, causes a disease on wheat leaves that can reduce yields by up to half! It does this by affecting the ability of a leaf to photosynthesise! An example of a bacterial disease of many plant species is caused by Pseudomonas syringae species complex (a very well studied, and complicated pathogen!). An example of a plant infecting virus that is studied and used to silence gene expression in living wheat leaves(!) where I work is the Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus.