This document summarizes the history of phytobacteriology in India from 1908 to 2001. It outlines key events and contributions from pioneering Indian scientists. Some of the earliest bacterial diseases reported in India included tundu disease of wheat in 1908 and angular leaf spot of cotton in 1923. Plant bacteriology in India began to take shape in 1948 with the efforts of Makanj Kalyanji Patel. He established the first school of plant bacteriology and described over 30 bacterial diseases. Several other scientists such as Hingorani, Bhide, Rangaswami, Chakravarti, Srivastava, Verma, and Chatterjee made significant contributions through their research on various bacterial pathogens and disease

2. SUBMITTED TO
Prof. Kamal Khilari
History Of Phytobacteriology
In India
SUBMITTED BY
ANUPAM KUMAR
ID NO - 3686Department of Plant Pathology

3. 1908 – The earliest
disease studied in India
was tundu disease of
wheat. It was reported
by Hutchinson.
 Hutchinson is the
President of
the Pathological
Society (1879–80)

4. 1923 – Ballard and Norris reported Angular leaf spot
of cotton
1927 – Ayyer for the first time reported soft rot
of garden poppies
1928 – Black rot of cabbage caused by
Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris was
reported in India by Patwardhan.

5. 1930 – Soft rot of turnip and leaf spot of
cucumber was reported by Prasad.
1933 – McRae reported rot of sugarcane.
1938 – Bacterial pustule of soybean was first
reported by Uppal and co workers

6. 1940 – Luthra and Sattar emphasized the
severity of canker disease of citrus.
1944 – Asthana and Mahmud for the first time
reported leaf spot of pepper.

7. •1948 - Plant Bacteriology in India got a shape
with the effort of Makanj Kalyanji Patel. He
established a school of Plant Bacteriology at
College of Agriculture, Pune and first described
a new species Xanthomonas campestris pv.
uppali from the host Ipomea muricota
•. He described more than 30 bacterial diseases
from India.

8. •1950 – M.K. Hingorani reported about the
complex nature of tundu disease of wheat
caused by a bacterium and a nematode and
also he confirmed the causal agent of ring
disease of potato as Pseudomonas
(=Ralstonia) solanacerarum. M.K.Hingorani at
IARI made valuable contributions for
understanding the soft rots of potato, onion
and pea caused by different species of
Erwinia.

9. •1952 – Hingorani and Mehta described the
leaf spot disease of pomegranate from Delhi.
1959 – The first Indian record of bacterial
blight of rice was by M.C. Srinivasan,
M.J.Thirumalachar and M.K.Patel from
Maharashtra.

10. •1960 - V.P. Bhide and G. Rangaswami also contributed
their pioneering works to the phytobacteriology of India.
Rangaswami described several bacterial diseases
which included bacterial leaf spots of tomato and
chillies, leaf spot of mungbean and gummosis in
sugarcane. He also reported the development of
resistance to streptomycin in Xanthomonas campestris
pv citri and X.campestris pv. malvacearum. He wrote
the book entitled “Bacterial Plant Diseases in India”
(1962). He contributed a great deal to the growth of
plant bacteriology through other valuable books and
monographs such as “Diseases of Crop Plants in
India” in 1972 and “Bacterial Plant Pathology” in
1973.

11. •1960s - 1970s - B.P.Chakravarti carried out
work on nutritional requirements of several
bacterial pathogens and developed some
specific media for the growth of Erwinia
chrysanthemi pv.zeae and Xanthomonas
campestris pv vesicatoria.
•1962 - D.N. Srivastava is mostly remembered
for his tremendous contribution on
understanding the survival and epidemiology of
bacterial blight of rice.

12. •1970 - J.P. Verma
contributed many
valuable findings on
bacterial blight disease of
cotton.
•2001 – Jayashree
Jayaraman and
J.P.Verma brought out a
book on “Fundamentals
of Plant Bacteriology”
•1987 – Verma wrote a
book entitled “The
Bacteria”.

13. 1972 - A.K.Chatterjee and M.P.Starr demonstrated
conjugative gene transfer in phytopathogeinc
bacteria
1972 – Anand M Chakrabarty patented the
first living organism pseudomonas which was
genetically engineered to degrade oil.