WELCOME TO ALL

Prof. M. Ashrafuzzaman Dept. Plant Pathology, BAU

History of Plant Pathology

Four Phases
1. 2. 3. 4. Ancient period Dark period Renaissance period Modern period

Ancient Period
Theophrastus (300-286 B.C.) Study and write about the diseases of trees, cereals and legumes in his book enquiry into plants His approach was observational and speculative rather than experimental.

Theory of spontaneous generation

Father of botany

DARK PERIOD
300AD

and 1300AD Also called pre-renaissance period in history no increase in the knowledge of plant pathology

PRE-MODERN/ RENAISSANCE PERIOD/AUTOGENIC ERA (17th mid 19th)

1675 A. D.-Anton van Leeuwenhoek (Holland) Invented compound microscope in 1675

In 1683 he described bacteria seen with this microscope

1729 A. D.-Pier Antonio Micheli (Italian)

Observed fungal spores for the first time and conducted many spore germination studies in 1729 He published a book Nova Plantarum Genera in which he gave descriptions about 1900 species in Latin out of which 900 were fungi.

Father of Mycology.

3) 1755 A. D.-Tillet (French)

Published a paper on bunt or stinking smut of wheat He reported the chemical treatment of seeds

MODERN PERIOD/ GOLDEN ERA/PATHOGENIC ERA (1800 1900)

IRIS FAMINE

In 1845, the potato crop in Ireland was completely wiped out by late blight disease caused great famine in 1846.
This resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people immigration of more than one and a half million Irish to United States.

4) 1853 A. D.-Anton De Bary (Germany)

established that fungi are the causes, not result of plant diseases renamed the casual organism of late blight as Phytophthora infestans. He discovered heteroecious nature of rust fungi Detailed life cycles of downy mildew He wrote a book named Morphology and Physiology of fungi, lichens and Myxomycetes (1866).

father mode Mycology

8) 1879 A. D.- Robert Koch Established the germ theory

Germ theory
diseases are caused by the presence and actions of specific micro-organisms that microorganisms are the cause of many diseases.

8) 1889 A. D. Beijerinck (Dutch)

proved that the virus is not a living microorganism.
Founder of virology

N.A. Cobb Contributed a lot to nematode morphology, taxonomy and methodology

Founder of nematology

Paul Neergaard

Father of seed pathology

Bengal Famine 1943 Brown spot diseases

Bangladesh perspective

Department of plant pathology Seed Pathology Centre Plant Disease diagnostic Clinic

Today Plant Pathology Some major trends were in the following areas:
Physiological plant pathology Genetics of the host and the pathogens Environment and its relation to plant disease Nature of disease resistance in plants Biochemistry and physiology of the diseased plants Tissue culture in plant pathology Ecological study of plant pathogens Integrated plant disease management Biotechnology and genetic engineering