This document provides a summary of the history of plant pathology. It discusses early observations of plant diseases by Theophrastus and others in ancient Greece and India. It then covers key discoveries and researchers in mycology, bacteriology and virology. Some important points included the discovery of fungi as causal agents by Micheli in 1729, De Bary's experimental proof of Phytophthora infestans causing the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s, Burrill showing fire blight was caused by bacteria in 1878, Beijerinck establishing viruses in 1898, and the development of Koch's postulates in the late 19th century.

1. UNIVERSITY OF ALLAHABAD
DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY
TOPIC - historyof plant pathology
SUBMITED BY
DEEPAK KUMAR MAURYA
M.Sc.(Ag.Botany)

3. INTRODUCTION
 IT WAS THEOPHRASTUS(370-286BC) A GREEK PHILOSOPHER
WHO FIRST TALK ABOUT PLANT DISEASE
 HISTORICALLY PLANT PATHOLOGY IN INDIA QUITE ANCIENT
WHICH IS NEARLY 4000 YEARS OLD.
 THERE ARE REFERENCES TO PLANT DISEASE AND THEIR
CONTROL IN RIGVEDA,ATHARVAVEDA(1500-
500BC),ARTHASHASHTRA OF KAUTILYA(321-186BC),SUSHRUTA
SAMHITA(200-500AD),AGNIPURANA(500-700AD) e.t.c. THE HOLY
BOOK WRITTEN IN INDIA.
 HOWEVER VRAKSHA AYURVEDA BOOK WRITTEN BY SURAPAL IN
ANCIENT INDIA;IS MUST PROBABLY THE FIRST TREATISE IN
WHICH HE GAVE DETAIL ACCOUNT ON PLANT DISEASE AND
THERE CONTROL

4. FUNGI AS CAUSE OF DISEASE
 THE ITALIAN BOTANIST P.A MICHELI(1679-1737) WAS THE
SCIENTIST WHO FIRST DESCRIBED MANY NEW GENERA
OF FUNGI AND ILLUSTRATED THEIR REPRODUCTIVE
STRUCTURES IN HIS BOOK NOVA PLANTARUM GENERA
THE FIRST AUTHENTIC LITERATURE ON FUNGI
PUBLISHED IN 1729.
 MICHELI CONSIDERED AS THE FOUNDER/FATHER OF
MYCOLOGY .
 HE PLACED SPORE OF FUNGI ON PIESES OF
MELON,QUINCE AND PEARS, AND FOUND THE
DEVELOPMENT OF MYCELIUM.
 HE PROVED THAT FUNGI AROSE FROM THEIR OWN
SPORE.

5. DISCOVERY OF MICROSCOPE
 ANTONY VON LEEWENHOEK DISCOVERED HIS
OWN MICROSCOPE IN 1675.
 HE FIRST SEEN THE MICROBE (BACTERIA etc.)AND
DISCOVERED MICROBIAL WORLD.
 KNOLL AND RUSKA DISCOVERED ELECTRON
MICROSCOPE IN 1932.

6. THE BEGINNING OF MODERN PLANT PATHOLOGY
 IN 1845 A MYSTERIOUS AND TERRIBLE POTATO MURRAIN APPEARED IN
WESTERN EUROPE.
 THIS POTATO MURRAIN DESTROYED THE IRISH POTATO CROP TO THE
EXTENT THAT ONE MILLION PEOPLE DIED OF STARVATION AND
MALNUTRITION AND SIMILAR NUMBER OF PEOPLE EMIGRATED FROM
IRELAND TO UNITED STATES.
 IT WAS HEINRICH ANTON DE BARY WHO FINALLY PROVED
EXPERIMENTALLY IN 1857 THAT THE CAUSAL AGENT OF LATE BLIGHT
OF POTATO HAS BEEN A FUNGUS NAMELY ,Phytophthora infestance .
 DeBary (1831-1888) WAS CONCIDERED AS THE FATHER OF
EXPERIMENTAL(MODERN)PLANT PATHOLOGY.
 HE ALSO DISCOVERED HETEROECISM IN UREDINALES AND NATURE OF
OBLIGATE AND FACULTATIVE FORMS OF LIFE

7. PHYTOPATHOGENIC NATURE OF BACTERIA
 T.J. BURRILL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS,USA FOR THE
FIRST TIME IN 1878 SHOWED THAT FIRE BLIGHT DISEASE OF
PEAR AND APPLE CAUSED BY BACTERIUM (NOW KNOWN AS
Erwinia amylovora ). IN FACT IT WAS THE DISCOVERY OF
PHYTOPATHOGENIC NATURE OF BACTERIA.
 E.F. SMITH IS CONSIDERED THE FATHER OF
PHYTOBACTERIOLOGY FOR HIS DISCOVERIES AND
METHADOLOGIES HE INTRODUCED FOR STUDY OF BACTERIAL
DISEASE DURING (1905-1920).

8. KOCH’S POSTULATES
 ROBERT KOCH IS KNOWN AS FATHER OF MICROBIAL TECHNIQUES
,FIRST LAID DOWN IN 1882 A THREE CONDITION SERIES FOR
PATHOGENISITY TEST OF ORGANISM.LATER ON A FOURTH CONDITION
WAS APPENDED TO KOCH’S SERIES BY E.F.SMITH 1905 ,THESE FOUR
CONDITION IS KNOWN AS KOCH’S POSTULATES.WHICH ARE
FOLLOWING-
 1- THE ORGANISM MUST BE FOUND ASSOCIATED WITH THE DISEASE IN
ALL THE DISEASED PLANTS EXAMINED.
 2-THE ORGANISM MUST BE SUCCESSFULLY ISOLATED AND GROWN IN
PURE CULTURE ON NUTRIENT MEDIA.
 3-THE ORGANISM SHOULD BE ISOLATED FROM PURE CULTURE MUST
BE INOCULATED ON THE HEALTHY HOST AND MUST BE CAUSE SAME
DISEASE ON INOCULATED HEALTHY HOST.
 4-THE ISOLATED ORGANISM DURING THIRD STEP AND GROW IN PURE
CULTURE AGAIN ,THE ORGANISM GROW IN PURE CULTURE MUST BE
SAME CHARACTER WHICH IS SHOWED DURING SECOND STEP.

9. DISCOVERY OF BORDEAUX MIXTURE
 BORDEAUX MIXTURE WAS DISCOVERED BY PROFF. P. M. A.
MILLARDET OF UNIVERSITY OF BORDEAUX(FRANCE).
 THIS FUNGICIDE WAS DISCOVERED TO PREVENT THE DOWNY
MILDEW OF GRAPES(CAUSED BY Plasmopara viticola) WHICH
ENDANGERED GRAPE CULTIVATION IN EUROPE AND
THREATENED THE WINE INDUSTRY IN FRANCE.
 MILLARDET NOTICED THAT FARMERS HAD PROTECTED THE
PLANT OF GRAPE VINES BY SPRINKLING VERDIGRIES ,A MIXTURE
OF COPPER SULPHATE AND LIME,TO DISCOURAGE PILFERING BY
SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN.
 THIS CLUE PROMPTED MILLARDET AND HE FINALLY
CONCLUDED HIS WORK AND PUBLISHED IT IN 1885,DISCLOSING
THAT A MIXTURE OF COPPER SULPHATE : LIME :WATER IN
RATIO OF (5:5:50).

10. DISCOVERY OF VIRUSES
 IN 1880 ADOLF MAYER BEGAN WORK ON A SERIOUS TOBACCO DISEASE
WHICH HE NAMED TOBACCO MOSAIC , HE REPRODUCING THE DISEASE BY
INFECTING JUICE OF INFECTED TOBACCO PLANT INTO HEALTHY ONES BUT
HE NOT IDENTIFYING THE REAL AGENT THAT CAUSE DISEASE.
 SIMILARLY SMITH(1891) DEMONSTRATED THAT PEACH YELLOW DISEASE
WAS CONTAGIOUS BUT HE ALSO COULD NOT DETERMINE IT’S REAL CAUSE.
 IT WAS IVANOWSKI(1892) CONFIRMED MAYER’S WORK ,HE PASSED JUICE
OF DISEASED PLANT FROM CHAMBERLAND FILTER AND FOUND THAT IT
RETAINED IT’S INFECTIVITY ,HE THOUGHT THAT CAUSAL AGENT OF
TOBACCO MOSAIC IS BACTERIUM.
 BEIJERINCK(1898) TESTED IVANOWSKI’S HYPOTHESIS AND CONCLUDED
THAT TOBACCO MOSAIC DISEASE WAS NOT CAUSED BY BACTERIUM OR
TOXIN SECRETED BY IT, BUT BY CONTAGIUM VIVUM FLUIDUM(LIVING
INFECTIOUS FLUID) WHICH HE REFERRED TO AS VIRUS AND SAID THAT
THE VIRUS MULTIPLIESON IN VIVO. FOR THIS CONTRIBUTION BEIJERINCK
IS HONOURED AS THE FATHER OF VIROLOGY.

11. HISTORY OF MYCOLOGY
 1675 - Dutch worker Anton von Leeuwenhoek developed the first microscope.
 1729 - Italian botanist P. A. Micheli proposed fungi comes from spores; father of
Mycology.
 1755 - French botanist Tillet published a paper on bunt or stinking smut of wheat;
discovered bunt is a disease of wheat.
 1807 - French scientist I. B. Prevost showed bunt of wheat is a fungus and showed
evidence that a disease is caused by a microorganism.
 1821 - E. M. Fries published Systema Mycologicum for naming of fungi; he was named
as Linnaeus of Mycology.
 1821 - Robertson of England stated that sulphur is effective against peach mildew.
 1845 - Irish Potato famine due to Phytophthora infestans caused starvation of million
and immigration of 1.5 million people.
 1858 - J. G. Kuhn published first textbook in Plant Pathology – The Diseases of
Cultivated Crops, their Causes and their Control.
 1861 -Anton de Bary (Germany) worked out the life cycle of potato late blight and first to
prove experimentally Phytophthora infestans is the cause of potato late blight. He
proved that fungi are causes but not the results of diseases. He is the Father of Modern
Plant Pathology.
 1865 – Anton de Bary reported heteroecious nature of wheat stem rust.
 1869 – England loses coffee production to coffee rust, forced to grow tea

12.  1881 -H.M. Ward worked out the life cycle of coffee leaf rust. He
is called as Father of Tropical Plant Pathology.
 1882 -Robert Hartig published a textbook -Diseases of Trees.
He is called as "Father of Forest Pathology".
 1885 -Pierre Marie Alexis Millardet discovered the Bordeax
mixture
1918 -E.J.Butler published book on Fungi and Disease in
Plants; he made exhaustive study on Indian fungi and the
diseases caused by them. He is called as the Father of Modern
Plant Pathology in India; He joined as the first Director of
Imperial Bureau of Mycology (Commonwealth Mycological
Institute, CMI) now CAB International Mycological Institute in
Kew, England in 1920. He began the journal Review of Applied
Mycology; with S.G. Jones he wrote, 'Plant Pathology' in 1949.
 1929 -Sir Alexander Fleming isolated the antibiotic, Penicillin
from the fungus, Penicillium notatum.

13. HISTORY OF BACTERIOLOGY
 1683 – Anton von Leeuwenhoek first observed bacteria.
 1876 -Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch -They proved that anthrax
disease of cattle was caused by specific bacterium.
 1876 -Robert Koch of Germany described the theory called "Koch's
postulates." He established the principles of pure culture technique.
 1876 -Robert Koch and Pasteur disproved the theory of spontaneous
generation of diseases and propose germ theory in relation to the
diseases of man and animal.
 1882 -American Plant Pathologist -T. J. Burrill first time proved that
fire blight of apple and pear was caused by a bacterium (now known as
Erwinia amylovora).
 1901-1920- E.F.Smith of U.S.A gave the final proof of the fact that
bacteria could be incitants of plant diseases. He also worked on the
bacterial wilt of cucurbits and crown gall disease. He is also called as
"Father of Phytobacteriology". Chilton and his coworkers
demonstrated that crown gall bacterium transforms plant cell to tumour
cell by introducing into them a plasmid.
 1952 -J. Lederberg coined the term plasmid 1952 – S. A. Waksman won
Nobel prize for the discovery of streptomycin.
 1952 – Zinder and J. Lederberg discovered transduction in bacteria.

14. HISTORY OF VIROLOGY
 1886 -Adolf Mayer described a disease of tobacco called mosaikkrankheit (tobacco
mosaic).Adolf Mayer demonstrated the sap transmission of Tobacco Mosaic Virus disease.
 1892 -Dimitri Ivanowski demonstrated that the causal agent of tobacco mosaic could pass
through bacterial filter.
 1895 -E.F. Smith of U.S.A. showed the peach yellows was a contagious disease.
 1898 -M.W. Beijerinck -a Dutch microbiologist and founder of virology proved that the virus
inciting tobacco mosaic is not a microorganism. He believed it to be contagium vivum
fluidum (infectious living fluid). He was the first to use the term virus, which is the Latin
word for poison.
 1929 -F. O. Holmes provided a tool by which the virus could be measured by showing that
the amount of virus present in a plant sample preparation is proportional to the number of
local lesions produced on appropriate host plant leaves rubbed with the contaminated sap.
 1935 -W. M. Stanley proved that viruses can be made as crystals. He got Nobel Prize in 1946.
 1936 -F. C. Bawden and, N.W. Pirie (Britain) found that the crystalline nature of the virus
contains nucleic acid and protein.
 1939 -Kausche and colleagues first time saw the TMV virus particles with the help of Electron
microscope.
 1971 -T. O. Diener discovered viroids, which only consist of nucleic acids. Smaller than
viruses,caused potato spindle tuber disease (250-400 bases long of single-stranded circular
molecule of infectious RNA).

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