title: Foundational and Translational Research Opportunities to Improve Plant Health.
abstract: Reader Comments | Submit a Comment The white paper reports the deliberations of a workshop focused on biotic challenges to plant health held in Washington, D.C. in September 2016. Ensuring health of food plants is critical to maintaining the quality and productivity of crops and for sustenance of the rapidly growing human population. There is a close linkage between food security and societal stability; however, global food security is threatened by the vulnerability of our agricultural systems to numerous pests, pathogens, weeds, and environmental stresses. These threats are aggravated by climate change, the globalization of agriculture, and an over-reliance on nonsustainable inputs. New analytical and computational technologies are providing unprecedented resolution at a variety of molecular, cellular, organismal, and population scales for crop plants as well as pathogens, pests, beneficial microbes, and weeds. It is now possible to both characterize useful or deleterious variation as well as precisely manipulate it. Data-driven, informed decisions based on knowledge of the variation of biotic challenges and of natural and synthetic variation in crop plants will enable deployment of durable interventions throughout the world. These should be integral, dynamic components of agricultural strategies for sustainable agriculture.
authors.affiliation: 1 The Genome Center and Departments of Plant Sciences, Molecular & Cellular Biology, and Medical Microbiology & Immunology, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A.
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authors.lastname: Michelmore
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A.
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authors.affiliation: 3 Danforth Center, St. Louis, MO, U.S.A.
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authors.affiliation: 4 Iowa State University, Ames, IA, U.S.A.
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authors.lastname: Beattie
authors.affiliation: 5 University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, U.S.A.
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authors.affiliation: 6 Rothamsted Research Center, U.K.
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authors.lastname: Bruce
authors.affiliation: 7 University of Sheffield, U.K.
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authors.affiliation: 8 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, U.S.A.
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authors.affiliation: 9 Plant Biology and Genome Center, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Savithramma
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authors.affiliation: 10 University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.
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authors.lastname: Gassmann
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authors.affiliation: 15 NIAB East Malling Research Station, U.K.
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authors.forename: Jagger
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authors.affiliation: 17 Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, U.S.A.
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authors.affiliation: 18 University of California San Diego, U.S.A.
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authors.affiliation: 20 Indiana University, Bloomigton, IN, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Roger
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authors.affiliation: 21 Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, U.K.
authors.forename: Jonathan D G
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authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: 22 University of California, Riverside, CA, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Isgouhi
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authors.lastname: Kaloshian
authors.affiliation: 21 Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, U.K.
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authors.affiliation: 23 University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Fumiaki
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authors.affiliation: 24 Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, U.S.A.
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authors.lastname: Leach
authors.affiliation: 22 University of California, Riverside, CA, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Wenbo
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authors.affiliation: 25 Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, U.S.A.
authors.forename: John
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9070-4874
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authors.lastname: McDowell
authors.affiliation: 26 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, U.S.A.
authors.forename: June
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authors.forename: Blake
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3436-6097
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authors.lastname: Meyers
authors.affiliation: 27 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, U.S.A.
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authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: 28 Curtin University, Bentley, Australia.
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authors.affiliation: 29 East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Yiping
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authors.lastname: Saunders
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authors.lastname: Smart
authors.affiliation: 32 Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Prasanta
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authors.lastname: Subudhi
authors.affiliation: 33 University of St. Andrews and James Hutton Institute, Fife, U.K.
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authors.affiliation: 35 University of Warwick, Wellesbourne, U.K.
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mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods; D057231:Climate Change; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical / Q000379:methods*