Molecular Approaches in Controlling Plant Diseases/Pathogens

Plant diseases cause major losses to several agricultural and horticultural crops around the world. Traditional methods of determining plant pathogens are slow and inconclusive, and time consuming but they are inexpensive. This has been prompted the search for alternative diagnostic techniques. With the recent development of technologies it has been found that molecular diagnostic provide accurate and faster result for the detection of the disease causing pathogens. Availability of the diagnostic methods provides greater flexibility, increased sensitivity, and specificity for rapid diagnosis of diseases in disease surveys, epidemiological studies, plant quarantine and seed certification and breeding programs.