Contribution of Plant Pathologists is important to understand plant pathology

1. Eminent plant pathologists

2. Anton De Bary
 Heinrich Anton de Bary (26 January 1831 – 19
January 1888) was a
German surgeon, botanist, microbiologist,
and mycologist (fungal systematics and physiology).
 He is considered a founding father of plant
pathology (phytopathology) as well as the founder of
modern mycology.
 His extensive and careful studies of the life
history of fungi and contribution to
the understanding of algae and
higher plants were landmarks of biology.

3.  He studied the pathogen Phytophthora
infestans (formerly Peronospora infestans) and
elucidated its life cycle.
 de Bary declared that the rust and smut fungi were
the causes of the pathological changes in diseased
plants. He concluded
that Uredinales and Ustilaginales were parasites.

4.  De Bary studied the developmental history
of Myxomycetes (slime molds).
 De Bary was the first to demonstrate sexuality in
fungi.
 In 1858, he had observed conjugation in the
alga Spirogyra, and in 1861, he described sexual
reproduction in the fungus Peronospora sp.
 He did a thorough investigation on Puccinia
graminis, the pathogen of rust of wheat, rye and
other grains.

5. Millardet
 Pierre-Marie-Alexis Millardet (13 December
1838 – 15 December 1902) was a
French botanist and mycologist born in Montmirey-
la-Ville.
 He was a student at the Universities
of Heidelberg and Freiberg, and later became a
professor of botany at the Universities
of Strasbourg (1869), Nancy (1872),
and Bordeaux (1876).
 Millardet is chiefly remembered for his work dealing
with plant pests.

6.  French botanist who developed the Bordeaux
mixture, the first successful fungicide.
 He also saved the vineyards of France from
destruction by Phylloxera, a genus of plant lice.

7. Thomas Jonathan Burrill
 Thomas Jonathan Burrill (April 25, 1839 – April
14, 1916) an American botanist and plant
pathologist who 1stdiscovered bacterial causes for
plant disease.
 He introduced Erwinia amylovora (called by
him Micrococcus amylovorus) as the causal agent
of pear fire blight.

8.  After the Colorado expedition, Burrill began teaching
algebra as an assistant professor in 1869.
 He soon switched to teaching botany and by 1870
was promoted to professor.
 In 1868, he was elected professor of botany and
horticulture at University of Illinois and remained
there the rest of his career, eventually serving as Vice
President in 1882.
 Burrill served as acting regent of the University of
Illinois from 1891 until 1894.

9. Erwin Frink Smith
 Erwin Frink Smith (January 21, 1854 – April 6,
1927) was an American plant pathologist with
the United States Department of Agriculture. He
played a major role in demonstrating that bacteria
could cause plant disease.

10.  Smith's first paper on bacterial diseases of plants
dealt with bacterial wilt of cucurbits. After this,
publications on specific bacterial diseases followed
with critical, characteristically thorough and detailed
technical descriptions of the organisms involved.

11. Adolf Mayer
 Mayer published a paper in 1886 on the disease,
which he named "mosaic disease of tobacco", and
described its symptoms in detail. He demonstrated
that the disease can be transmitted by using the sap
from the affected tobacco plants as the inoculum to
infect healthy plants.

12.  Mayer published a paper in 1886 on the disease,
which he named "mosaic disease of tobacco", and
described its symptoms in detail.
 He demonstrated that the disease can be
transmitted by using the sap from the affected
tobacco plants as the inoculum to infect healthy
plants.
 At the time, this disease was thought to be spread by
very small bacteria or toxins, yet some years later
the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) was shown to be the
culprit.

13. Dmitri Iosifovich Ivanovsky
 He determined that the infection was
mosaic disease, which was believed at the time to
be caused by bacteria. Using a filtering method for
the isolation of bacteria, Ivanovsky discovered that
filtered sap from diseased plants could transfer the
infection to healthy plants.

14.  Russian microbiologist who, from his study
of mosaic disease in tobacco, first detailed many of
the characteristics of the organisms that came to be
known as viruses.
 Although he is generally credited as the discoverer
of viruses, they were also independently discovered
and named by the Dutch botanist M.W. Beijerinck
only a few years later.

15. Stakman
 Elvin Charles Stakman (May 17, 1885 – January
22, 1979) was an American plant pathologist who
was a pioneer of methods of identifying and
combatting disease in wheat.
 Map from Stakman's 1922 US Plant Disease Survey
 Stakman was the advisor for Margaret Newton, who
completed her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) studies
in 1922, who became an internationally renowned
phytopathologist in the study of stem rust.

16. Theodor Otto Diener
 Theodor Otto Diener (born February 28, 1921)[ is
the Swiss-American plant pathologist who, in 1971,
discovered that the causative agent of the potato
spindle tuber disease is not a virus, but a novel agent,
which consists solely of a short strand of single-
stranded RNA without a protein capsid, eighty times
smaller than the smallest viruses. He proposed to
name it and similar agents to be discovered viroids.
Viroids displace viruses as the smallest infectious
agents known.

17. Vander plank
 In 1963 J. E. van der Plank published "Plant Diseases:
Epidemics and Control", a seminal work that created a
theoretical framework for the study of the epidemiology
of plant diseases.
 This book provides a theoretical framework based on
experiments in many different host pathogen systems
and moved the study of plant disease epidemiology
forward rapidly, especially for fungal foliar pathogens.
Using this framework we can now model and determine
thresholds for epidemics that take place in a
homogeneous environment such as a mono-cultural crop
field.

19. Eminent Indian plant pathologists
 K.R. Kirtikar was the first Indian scientist who
collected and identified the fungi in the country. E.J.
Bulter who is also known as the 'Father of Plant
Pathology' in India, initiated an exhaustive study
of fungi and diseases caused by them in 1901 at
Imperial Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa
(Bihar).

20.  K.R. Kirtikar was the first Indian scientist who collected and
identified the fungi in the country.
 E.J. Bulter who is also known as the ‘Father of Plant
Pathology’ in India, initiated an exhaustive study of fungi and
diseases caused by them in 1901 at Imperial Agricultural
Research Institute at Pusa (Bihar).
 During his stay of 20 years in this country, he made a
scientific study of mostly fungal plant diseases known in India
at that time. The diseases studied by him for the first time
included wilt of cotton and pigeon pea, different diseases of
rice, toddy palm, sugarcane, potato and rusts of cereals.
 He wrote a monograph on ‘Pythiaceous and Allied Fungi’; and
a classic text book, ‘Fungi and Diseases in Plants’ in 1918.

21.  J.F. Dastur (1886-1971), a colleague of Butler, was the first Indian Plant
Pathologist who is credited with a detailed studies of fungi and diseases in
plants.
 He studied the genus Phytophthora and diseases caused by it in castor and
potato. He is internationally known for the establishment of Phytophthora
parasitica from castor.
 G.S. Kulkarni published exhaustive information on downy mildew and
smuts of sugarcane and pearl millet.
 B.B. Mundkur started work on control of cotton wilt through
varietal resistance.
 He was also responsible for the identification and classification of large
number of Indian smut fungi.
 His most significant contribution to plant pathology will be remembered
through the ‘Indian Phytopathological Society’ which he started almost
single handedly in 1948 with its journal ‘Indian Phytopathology’.
 He also authored a text book entitled, ‘Fungi and Plant Diseases’.

22.  Dr. K.C. Mehta of Agra College, Agra investigated the life cycle of cereal rusts in India
during the first half of 20th century.
 Dr. R. Prasada trained by Dr K.C. Mehta continued the work on rusts and added to the
knowledge of linseed rust.
 Luthra and Sattar (1953) developed the solar heat treatment of wheat seed for the control
of loose smut. SN Dasgupta carried out exhaustive studies on black tip of mango.
 T.S. Sadasivan worked out the mechanism of wilting in cotton due to Fusarium
oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum.
 M.K. Patel, V.P. Bhide and G. Rangaswami pioneered the work on bacterial plant
pathogens in India.
 M.J. Thirumalachar conducted exhaustive studies on rusts and smuts, and developed a
number of antibiotics for controlling plant diseases in India.

23.  Afterwards, Plant Pathology became a major subject
in various agricultural colleges and universities and
organized research was conducted on major plant
diseases affecting crop plants in India.
 Notable contributions included the works of B.L.
Chona on sugarcane diseases and Agnihothrudu in
tea diseases, R.K. Agrawala on apple diseases and
G.S. Saharan on oilseed plant diseases to name a few.