A Textbook Of Plant Virus Diseases

A Textbook of Plant Virus Diseases deals with a discussion of different plant viruses, their properties, and the corresponding diseases these viruses cause. It includes a list of host plants of every virus arranged alphabetically. The book discusses the new types of disease vectors, such as root-infesting fungi, nematode worms, mites, and insects that are both biting and sucking. It also discusses the development of new techniques in electron microscopy that is used to characterize in detail the causal viruses of a number of plant virus diseases. Furthermore, it presents the development of plant virus serology, as well as the improved methods of virus isolation that allow the classification of viruses into related groups. The book includes a Bibliography and an Index of Synonyms that can be used in identifying given virus name. In addition, cross-references are included for searching a particular virus under the alternative names. This book will be invaluable to ecologists, environmentalists, agriculturalists, and other scientists interested in plant viruses. Biology students will also find this reference helpful.

Handbook of Plant Virus Diseases presents basic information about viral-caused and viral-like diseases in many cultivated crops. The editors, internationally known plant pathologists, provide authoritative descriptive symptomatic signatures of virus diseases, to aid in the diagnosis and possible control of viruses. This handbook organizes cultivated plants into groups according to their final destinations and uses after harvest-a useful grouping system that indicates that some diseases, their resultant epidemiology, and control measures are characteristic within different groups.

For the past twenty years I have worked as an applied plant virologist, attempting to identify and control virus diseases in field crops. During the last ten years it has been my privilege to present short courses in plant virology to final-year students studying plant pathology, micro biology and general botany. Throughout the period I have been lecturing, it has been possible to recommend several excellent 'library' books for further reading in plant virology, but there has been no publication covering applied plant virology that a student might consider purchasing. With teaching requirements in mind this book has been written to provide a concise introduction to applied plant virology based on the experiences I have gained working on virus diseases, both in an applied laboratory and in the field. The text concentrates on introducing the reader to aspects of plant virology that would be encountered every day by an applied virologist trying to identify viruses and develop control measures for virus diseases of crop plants. Although a brief introduction to virus structure and its terminology is given in the opening chapter of the book, no attempt is made to cover in detail the more fundamental aspects of virus structure, biochemistry and replication. Similarly, the symptoms caused by individual viruses are not described, although the various types of symptoms that plant viruses cause and which might be encountered by a student or research worker are described.

Contents: Survey of Plant Diseases, Methods of Studying Plant Diseases, Symptoms of Plant Diseases, Environment and Plant Diseases, Diseases Caused by Environmental Factors, Dissemination of Plant Diseases, General Effects of Diseases, Cultural Practices in Disease Control, Epidemics of Diseases, Biochemistry of Defense, Physical and Chemical Therapy, Soil Preventing Born Diseases.

Symptomatology: changes in the appearance of plants. Symptomatology: changes within infected plants. Symptomatology: effects on host-plant metabolism. Methods of transmission. Transmission by animals while feeding. Methods of assay. The composition of virus particles. The morphology of viruses. Types of inactivation. Virus multiplication. Movement within host plants. Genetic variability. Classification. The control of virus diseaes.

Around the globe, besides fungal and bacterial diseases, both virus and viroid diseases have acquired greater importance in the realm of plant pathology and call for effective management measures as they are responsible for heavy yield losses and are a matter of vital importance and concern to farmers, horticulturists, gardeners and foresters. Understanding disease epidemiology is of vital importance for formulating viable disease management practices in a given agro-ecosystem. The development and progress of plant disease epidemics are variable from region to region. Epidemiology is not a static process, but rather a dynamic course that varies with a change in the ecology, host, vector and virus systems.