What does plant disease resistance really mean?

In many cases, the terms "resistance" and "tolerance" are used interchangeably. And oftentimes, resistance is mistakenly thought to equal immunity.

AmericanHort and its research foundation, the Horticultural Research Institute (HRI), are dedicated to unifying the industry to cultivate successful businesses and help enhance lives through the benefits of plants. AmericanHort relies on stakeholder input to drive its focus and efforts, including the recent industry-initiated movement to standardize the terms used as marketing tags on newly released plant material in reference to specific diseases and/or abiotic stresses.

At the request of industry representatives, AmericanHort has led an effort to explore industrywide adoption of specific terms to be used in the event of a new plant release when describing disease resistance and/or tolerance to abiotic stresses to help avoid unsubstantiated and misleading claims.

"It's a good idea for the whole industry to use the same words to describe a plant's response to stress and to clarify the specific pathogen or agent tested," says Jean-Marc Versolato, Production Manager, Plant Health Department at Bailey, who participated in the process. "This is useful so that the end customer understands the claim being made, and there is no ambiguity in a plant's resistance or tolerance to a stress. It becomes a truer statement and no longer misleads the customer into thinking a plant is resistant to all sorts of problems."

Source: Greenhouse Grower

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Source: Greenhouse Grower