Agricultural Reviews

The environment is an important aspect of plant ecology. And global environmental change is of major concern that is caused by natural and human activities which alter greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. An increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases is foreseen to continue to raise the average global temperature. Elevated concentration of carbon dioxide with increased temperature influences the plant-disease interactions. The environment influences the development as well as temporal and spatial dissemination of plant diseases. The result of a change in environment can either be favorable, non-favorable or impartial, as these changes can either lessen, expand or have no influence on diseases as each disease may be attributed differently to these variations in accordance to an area or time of year. Variation in environmental conditions is said to be influencing plants in natural ecosystems all around the world and change in climate directly impacts crops, along with their synergy in accordance with the microbial population. The important elements governing magnification and spread of plant diseases are temperature, moisture, light, and carbon dioxide concentration. Environment change causes a significant impact on germination, reproduction, sporulation, spore dispersal, along with perforation by pathogens as a pernicious pathogen will not invade a vulnerable host if the environmental conditions are not facilitative for the disease. The environment influences all life stages of host as well as that of a pathogen and as a result, induces an opposition to various pathosystems. Resistance mechanisms of plants, including effector-triggered immunity (ETI), pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and defense network of hormones, are particularly influenced by environmental elements. Pathogenic virulence mechanisms like fabrication of virulence proteins and toxins, and also spore germination and survival are governed by factors such as atmospheric carbon dioxide, temperature, and humidity. A large number of in-vitro experiments to understand interactions between plants and pathogens rely on predetermined pathosystems by making use of ascertained environmental conditions which take into consideration relatively small part of vital plant-pathogen-environment interactions occurring in a natural ecosystem. Thus, there is a need to research effectiveness of disease management strategies that is, to assess current management strategies to understand the multifaceted nature of environment-pathogen interactions for the production of crops that are irrepressible to environmental change.