Diagnosis of Fungal Plant Pathogens Using Conventional and Molecular Approaches

Abstract

Fungi are a large group of eukaryotes found as saprophytes, pathogens or endophytes, which distribute in every corner of our planet. As the main pathogens, fungi can cause 70–80% of total plant diseases, leading to huge crop yield reduction and economic loss. For identification of fungal plant pathogens, mycologists and plant pathologists have mainly gone through two stages, viz. morphological observation and morphology/phylogeny, and the next era might be utilizing DNA barcodes as the tool for rapid identification. This chapter accounts i) the brief history of development for fungal identification tools and main concepts, ii) the importance and confusion of “One fungus, one name” for pathogen identification, iii) more or fewer species that we need in agricultural practice, and iv) the foreground of fungal plant pathogen identification. These will help to solve the practical problems of identification of fungal pathogens in agricultural production.