Università Roma Tre

Plant Pathology is the discipline that studies the interaction between plants, pathogens and the environment. Safety in food production is one of the hallmarks of global strategies aimed at ensuring food for all for the future. Currently the production of food of plant origin is severely compromised by the increasingly pressing challenge posed by pathogens. These latter directly deplete nutrient resources by deteriorating and sometimes eliminating crops: indirectly worsen the quality of food by forcing farmers to use pesticides and by releasing mycotoxins into the crops, secondary metabolites of fungal origin harmful to humans and animals. The Plant Pathology therefore has as its primary purpose the study of pathogens, of the main defensive strategies of plants, the defensive strategies implemented by man and the recognition of symptoms of the main diseases that put at risk the quantity and quality of agricultural production.

Students who have passed the exam will be able to know and understand (acquired knowledge)

- The concept of the pyramid of the disease
- The different types of phytopathogens: viruses, bacteria and fungi
- The diagnosis of plant pathogens
- The cycle of infection and the ecology of a pathogen
- The basis of defensive strategies, innate, of plants
- Taxonomically important structures in the recognition of a pathogen
- The main symptoms of diseases of cultivated plants

Students who have passed the exam will be able to (acquired skills):
- Identify the main factors causing illness in the main crops
- Establish the salient features of a cycle of infection of a pathogen
- Identify the main pathogens (bacteria and fungi)
- Identify disease symptoms caused by viruses, bacteria and fungi in major crops
- Outline standard strategies for controlling plant diseases

Testi consigliati
Fondamenti di patologia vegetale
di Alberto Matta, Roberto Buonaurio, Aniello Scala
Editore: Pàtron
Edizione: 2
A cura di: F. Favaron, F. Scala
Data di Pubblicazione: 2017
EAN: 9788855533829
ISBN: 8855533827