Plant disease diagnosis: technological advancements and challenges

Abstract

Plant diseases cause substantial losses in yield of plants, leading to huge economic losses. Accurate identification and diagnosis of plant diseases are very important in the era of climate change and globalization for food security as well as prevention of the spread of invasive pests/pathogens. In addition, for an efficient and economical management of plant diseases accurate, sensitive and specific diagnosis is necessary. The science of plant disease diagnosis has evolved from visual inspection and identification of plant diseases to detect with high-throughput serological techniques like enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). With the applications of bioinformatics in plant pathology, identification of specific motifs, DNA sequences has become possible, which ultimately increase the accuracy of modern techniques in plant disease diagnosis. Though advances have been made in every aspect of diagnosis of plant diseases; increasing sensitivity and specificity have remained the key area for development. This review briefly describes the various techniques used for plant disease diagnosis and their evolution to meet the contemporary challenges.