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Tolerance to Plant Pathogens: Theory and Experimental Evidence
The two major mechanisms of plant defense against pathogens are resistance (the host’s ability to limit pathogen multiplication) and tolerance (the host’s ability to reduce the effect of infection on its fitness regardless of the level of pathogen multiplication). There is abundant literature on vir...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5877671/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29534493 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms19030810 |
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author | Pagán, Israel García-Arenal, Fernando |
author_facet | Pagán, Israel García-Arenal, Fernando |
author_sort | Pagán, Israel |
collection | PubMed |
description | The two major mechanisms of plant defense against pathogens are resistance (the host’s ability to limit pathogen multiplication) and tolerance (the host’s ability to reduce the effect of infection on its fitness regardless of the level of pathogen multiplication). There is abundant literature on virtually every aspect of plant resistance to pathogens. Although tolerance to plant pathogens is comparatively less understood, studies on this plant defense strategy have led to major insights into its evolution, mechanistic basis and genetic determinants. This review aims at summarizing current theories and experimental evidence on the evolutionary causes and consequences of plant tolerance to pathogens, as well as the existing knowledge on the genetic determinants and mechanisms of tolerance. Our review reveals that (i) in plant-pathogen systems, resistance and tolerance generally coexist, i.e., are not mutually exclusive; (ii) evidence of tolerance polymorphisms is abundant regardless of the pathogen considered; (iii) tolerance is an efficient strategy to reduce the damage on the infected host; and (iv) there is no evidence that tolerance results in increased pathogen multiplication. Taken together, the work discussed in this review indicates that tolerance may be as important as resistance in determining the dynamics of plant-pathogen interactions. Several aspects of plant tolerance to pathogens that still remain unclear and which should be explored in the future, are also outlined. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5877671 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-58776712018-04-09 Tolerance to Plant Pathogens: Theory and Experimental Evidence Pagán, Israel García-Arenal, Fernando Int J Mol Sci Review The two major mechanisms of plant defense against pathogens are resistance (the host’s ability to limit pathogen multiplication) and tolerance (the host’s ability to reduce the effect of infection on its fitness regardless of the level of pathogen multiplication). There is abundant literature on virtually every aspect of plant resistance to pathogens. Although tolerance to plant pathogens is comparatively less understood, studies on this plant defense strategy have led to major insights into its evolution, mechanistic basis and genetic determinants. This review aims at summarizing current theories and experimental evidence on the evolutionary causes and consequences of plant tolerance to pathogens, as well as the existing knowledge on the genetic determinants and mechanisms of tolerance. Our review reveals that (i) in plant-pathogen systems, resistance and tolerance generally coexist, i.e., are not mutually exclusive; (ii) evidence of tolerance polymorphisms is abundant regardless of the pathogen considered; (iii) tolerance is an efficient strategy to reduce the damage on the infected host; and (iv) there is no evidence that tolerance results in increased pathogen multiplication. Taken together, the work discussed in this review indicates that tolerance may be as important as resistance in determining the dynamics of plant-pathogen interactions. Several aspects of plant tolerance to pathogens that still remain unclear and which should be explored in the future, are also outlined. MDPI 2018-03-11 /pmc/articles/PMC5877671/ /pubmed/29534493 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms19030810 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Pagán, Israel García-Arenal, Fernando Tolerance to Plant Pathogens: Theory and Experimental Evidence |
title | Tolerance to Plant Pathogens: Theory and Experimental Evidence |
title_full | Tolerance to Plant Pathogens: Theory and Experimental Evidence |
title_fullStr | Tolerance to Plant Pathogens: Theory and Experimental Evidence |
title_full_unstemmed | Tolerance to Plant Pathogens: Theory and Experimental Evidence |
title_short | Tolerance to Plant Pathogens: Theory and Experimental Evidence |
title_sort | tolerance to plant pathogens: theory and experimental evidence |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5877671/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29534493 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms19030810 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT paganisrael tolerancetoplantpathogenstheoryandexperimentalevidence AT garciaarenalfernando tolerancetoplantpathogenstheoryandexperimentalevidence |