Abstract
Plant tolerance to biotic stresses (mostly
limited here to fungal pathogens and insects) is the
ability of a plant to maintain performance in the presence
of expressed disease or insect herbivory. It differs
from resistance (the capacity to eliminate or limit pests
and pathogens by genetic and molecular mechanisms)
and avoidance (the ability to escape infection by epidemics).
The ways to tolerance of pests and diseases
are multiple and expressed at different scales. The
contribution of organs to the capture and use of resources
depends on canopy and root architecture, so the
respective locations of disease and plant organs will
have a strong effect on the crop’s response. Similarly,
tolerance is increased when the period of crop sensitivity
lies outside the period within which the pest or
pathogen is present. The ability of the plant to compensate
for the reduced acquisition of resources by the
production of new organs or by remobilization of
reserves may also mitigate biotic stress effects.
Numerous examples exist in the literature and are
described in this article. Quantification of tolerance
remains difficult because of: (i) the large number of
potential mechanisms involved; (ii) different rates of
development of plants, pests and pathogens; and (iii)
various compensatory mechanisms. Modelling is,
therefore, a valuable tool to quantify losses, but also
to prioritize the processes involved.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 561 - 580 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | European Journal of Plant Pathology |
Volume | 135 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Print publication - Mar 2013 |
Bibliographical note
1023370Keywords
- Crop architecture
- Diseases
- Insects
- Modelling
- Tolerance