Morphological symptoms of plant diseases

Thousands of plant diseases have been recorded throughout the world, many of these causing heavy crop loses. Early detection and accurate diagnosis is essential for the effective management of plant disease. Thus the first step in studying any disease is its timely detection of the diseased plant. Quick initial detection is largely based on the signs and symptoms of disease.[1]

Signs are the visible physical presence of either the pathogen itself or the structures formed by the pathogen. Common examples of easily detected signs are those such as the fungal mycelia and spore masses of downy mildews observed on infected leaves and the bacterial ooze of Xanthomonas leaf streak disease on rice.[2]

Symptoms are the visible changes that occur in the host plant in response to infection by pathogens. For any disease in a given plant, there is the characteristic expression of symptoms, usually occurring in a sequential series during the course of the disease. This series of symptoms depicting the disease picture is referred to as the disease syndrome.[3]

Morphological symptoms may be exhibited by the entire plant or by any organ of the plant. These have been categorized into different groups for easy of study. Primarily, morphological symptoms of plant diseases can be categorized into 6 different types.[4]

Necroses

Necroses are caused due to necrosis or death of plant cells. The affected plant tissue usually turns brown to black in color. Necrotic symptoms could appear in any part of the plant such as in storage organs, in green tissues, or in woody tissues.[5]

Necrosis in Storage organs

Death of cells in storage organs terminates in decomposition or decay referred to as a rot. Two types of rots are identified as Dry rot and Wet rot on storage tissues.

Soft rots are those where the pathogen breaks down the host cell walls, resulting in the exudation of juices from the infected tissue. The organ becomes mushy or pulpy and a foul smell often develops due to colonization by secondary invaders. Many fungi and bacteria cause soft rots on several fruits and vegetables. Species of the fungus, Rhizopus and bacterium Erwinia are two such commonly found pathogens causing soft rots.

In a dry rot, the storage organ becomes hard and dry, and in some diseases, there is rapid loss of water and the infected organs become shriveled, wrinkled, and leathery. Dry rots showing such symptoms are referred to as mummifications.

Necrosis in Green tissues

Necroses on green tissue are termed differently based on the nature of symptoms and the type of green tissue. The term, damping off refers to the sudden wilting and topping over of seedlings as a result of extensive necrosis of tender tissue of the roots and stem near the soil line, due to the attack of soil-borne pathogens such as fungus, Pythium. This fungus is known to cause damping off in an assortment of seedlings such as that of brinjal, chilli, mung beans, tobacco, tomato, and Cucurbita.[6]

A spot refers to a well-defined area of gray or brown necrotic tissue. Spots are very common on leaves and fruits and are probably the most familiar necrotic symptom. Sometimes the necrotic tissue within a leaf spot may crack and fall off from the surrounding green tissue leaving an empty space. Such a symptom is known as a shot hole.

Minute or very small spots are sometimes referred to as flecks or specks.

When dark mycelia of a fungal pathogen appear on the surface of necrotic spot, blotting the leaves, shoots, an stems as large and irregular spots, the symptom is referred to as a blotch.

Both streaks and stripes occur in grasses and are elongated areas having dead cells. Streaks occur along the stem and veins, while stripes are in the laminar tissues between veins.

Net necrosis is a symptom resulting from an irregular pattern of anastomoses between streaks or stripes.

Blights are characterized by the rapid death of entire leaves including the veins or parts of the leaves. Blights also could occur on flowers and stems.

Scorches resemble blights, but there necrosis occurs in irregular patterns between veins and along leaf margins.

Firing is sudden drying, collapse and death of entire leaves. Firing occurs in response to the activity of root rot and vascular wilt pathogens.

Scald is the term used to describe the blanching of epidermal and adjacent tissues of fruits and occasionally of leaves.

The sudden death of unopened buds or inflorescence is referred to as blast.

Extensive necrosis of fruits that resemble in premature dropping is called shelling.

Necrosis in Woody tissues

Necrosis of woody tissue often brings about various types of die-back symptoms. Dieback is the extensive necrosis of a shoot from its tip downwards.

Restricted necrosis of the bark and cortical tissue of stems and roots is termed as a canker. In cankers, necrotic tissue in the sunken lesions is sharply limited, usually by a callus from adjacent healthy tissue.[7]

When woody tissues are diseased, they may exude different kinds of substances. When the exudate is gummy, the symptom is called gummosis, while it is resinosis when it is resinous. If the exudate is neither gummy nor resinous, it is described as bleeding.[8]

Abnormalities in growth

Many disease symptoms are associated with growth changes in diseased plants. These could be caused by either reduced growth due to hypoplasia and atrophy or excessive growth due to hyperplasia and hypertrophy.

Hypoplasia & Atrophy

Hypoplasia is the failure of plants or plant organs to develop fully due to a decreased production of the number of cells. Hypoplasia results in plants or plant parts of sub-normal size.[9]

Atrophy is the reduction in the size of plant cells produced. This also results in stunted plants or plant parts.[10]

Dwarfing is the failure of a plant or a plant part to attain its full size.

Rosetting is a condition where the internode of a plant do not elongate, and hence, the leaves appear close together in a cluster.

Hyperplasia & Hypertrophy

Hyperplasia is the enlargement of a plant tissue due to excessive increase in the number of plant cells produced. Hyperplasia results in overdevelopment in size of plants or plant organs.[11]

Hypertrophy is excessive growth due to the enlargement of individual cells. This condition also results in the overdevelopment in size of plants or plant organs.[12]

Hyperplasia and hypertrophy could result in the enlargement of leaves and fruits, and the enlargement of stems and roots.

Enlargement of leaves and fruits

Several symptoms expressing enlargement of leaves and fruits are commonly observed among diseased plants.

Curling which is the bending of the shoot or the rolling of the leaf, is a result of over-growth on one side of an organ. Often viral diseases cause such leaf distortions due to irregular growth of the lamina. Extreme reduction of the leaf lamina brings about the symptom known as the Shoe-string effect.

The puckering or crinkling of leaves due to different growth rates in adjacent tissue is known as savoying.

Overgrowth of epidermal and underlying tissues of leaves, stems, fruits and tubers may result scab formation. Scab consists of raised, rough, and discrete lesions. These are often sunken and cracked, giving a typical scabby appearance.

Localized swellings or enlargement of epidermal cells due to excessive accumulation of water is termed intermuscence and the diagnostic symptom is the appearance of a blister.[13]

Enlargement of stems and roots

Symptoms causing enlargement of stems and roots are termed differently based on their nature. Excessive accumulation of food material in stems, above a constricted area produces a swelling termed sarcody.

Localized swellings that involve entire organs are termed tumefaction. Commonly exhibited tumefactions are galls, clubs, and knots.

Excessive development of adventitious organs results in fasciculation, that is the clustering of organs around a focal point. Such examples include witch's broom and hairy root. Witch's broom is a broom-like mass proliferation due to the dense clustering of branches of woody plants while hairy root results due to excessive development of roots.[14]

Fasciation is the broadening or flattening of cylindrical organs such as stems. The continued development of any organ after it has reached a stage beyond which it normally does not grow is known as proliferation.

The outgrowth of tissue in response to wounding is known as a callus. Callus formation is found to form around most cankers.

Metaplastic symptoms

Metaplastic symptoms are those which form when tissues change from one form to another. Such symptoms include phyllody, the development of floral organs into leaf-like structures, juvenillody, the development of juvenile seedlings on mature plants and russeting, a superficial browning of surfaces of fruits and tubers due to suberization.[15]

Proleptic symptoms

Proleptic symptoms result from the development of tissues earlier than usual. Examples include prolepsis, the premature development of a shoot from a bud, proleptic abscission, the premature formation of abscission layers and restoration, the unexpected development of organs that are normally rudimentary.[16]

Color changes

Changes in the color of plant tissue are a common symptom of plant disease. Often these color changes are brought about by the yellowing of normal green tissue due to the destruction of chlorophyll or a failure to form chlorophyll. Such repression of leaf color may be complete or partial.

When color repression is complete, it is known as albication. However, the more common, partial repression is referred to as chlorosis.[17]

Patches of green tissue alternating with chlorotic areas are described as a mosaic. Mosaic is a symptom caused by many viruses. Based on the intensity and the pattern of discoloration, mosaics are termed differently. Irregular patches of distinct light and dark areas are known as mottling. Streaking and ring spots are still other distinct types of discolorations. Ring spots are circular masses of chlorosis with a green center. Vein clearing and vein banding are yet other common color changes on leaves.[18]

Chlorophyll may also develop in tissues normally devoid of it. Thus usually white or colored tissue becomes green in color. This is called as virescence.[19]

Anthocyanescence is due to the overdevelopment of anthocyanin and result in the development of a purplish coloration. Color changes can also take place in flowers. Such an example is the color break virus-affected tulips.[20]

Wilts

Wilting is due to loss of turgor in plant tissue resulting in the dropping of plant parts. They are common symptom in diseases where the pathogen or the toxic metabolites it produces affects the vascular tissue of the host plant. Interference in water transport brought about by the infection of these vascular pathogens leads to wilting. Unlike wilting due to low soil moisture, wilting due to the activity of these pathogens cannot be overcome by watering the plants. Infected plants eventually die.[21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.plantpath.iastate.edu/
  2. ↑ http://plantpath.psu.edu/
  3. ↑ http://www.plantpath.wisc.edu/
  4. ↑ http://plantpathology.ucdavis.edu/
  5. ↑ http://homeguides.sfgate.com/necrosis-plant-diseases-39504.html
  6. ↑ http://tomclothier.hort.net/page13.html
  7. ↑ http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/intropp/lessons/prokaryotes/Pages/CitrusCanker.aspx
  8. ↑ http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcollege/plantpathology/ext_files/PPFShtml/PPFS-FR-T-8.pdf
  9. ↑ http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/280003/hypoplastic-symptom
  10. ↑ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atrophy
  11. ↑ http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/279676/hyperplastic-symptom
  12. ↑ http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hypertrophy
  13. ↑ http://www.ppws.vt.edu/extension/plant-disease-clinic/DiseaseAdvisory/Archives/032014-LeafBlisters.html
  14. ↑ http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/2005/2-23-2005/witchesbroom.html
  15. ↑ http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/plant-pathology-46.aspx
  16. ↑ http://erec.ifas.ufl.edu/plant_pathology_guidelines/module_03.shtml
  17. ↑ http://urbanext.illinois.edu/focus/index.cfm?problem=chlorosis
  18. ↑ http://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/plant-disease/mosaic-virus/
  19. ↑ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/virescence
  20. ↑ http://www.hawaiiplantdisease.net/glossary/Anthocyanescence.htm
  21. ↑ http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/644850/wilt
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