Abstract
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms became available commercially about a decade ago. They provide highly efficient, rapid, and low-cost high-throughput and deep DNA sequencing. They are being continually improved to become faster, more efficient and cheaper and have been used in biology since 2004. Since 2008, NGS has been applied to plant pathogens, the causal agents of plant disease. These include the nematodes, fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, viruses, viroids and phytoplasmas which have significant economic impacts on infected plants. The applications include pathogen genome sequencing, discovery and detection, ecology and epidemiology, replication and transcription. Identification and characterization of effectors of prokaryotic and eukaryotic pathogens and known and novel viruses and/or viroids are currently the most successful applications of NGS in plant pathology. It is expected that NGS will play a very significant role in many areas of plant pathology.