The Role of Plant Pathology in Food Safety and Food Security
This book views the vulnerability of our crops in general to devastating diseases as well as specifically the disease problems of two important staples, rice and cassava. Increased travel and increased transport of plant material throughout the world pose
- PDF / 6,074,869 Bytes
- 154 Pages / 428.531 x 666.974 pts Page_size
- 91 Downloads / 248 Views
3
The Role of Plant Pathology in Food Safety and Food Security
AB 3
The Role of Plant Pathology in Food Safety and Food Security
Plant Pathology in the 21st Century
For other titles published in this series, go to www.springer.com/series/8169
R.N. Strange Maria Lodovica Gullino ●
Editors
The Role of Plant Pathology in Food Safety and Food Security
Editors R.N. Strange School of Biological and Chemical Sciences Birkberk College University of London UK [email protected]
Maria Lodovica Gullino Universitá degli Studi di Torino, Italy [email protected]
Low yield of a banana plant derived from a sucker (lower picture) and higher yield of banana plant grown from tissue culture (upper picture): see article by James Onsando and Florence Wambugu (page 80).
ISBN 978-1-4020-8931-2 e-ISBN 978-1-4020-8932-9 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-8932-9 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009929634 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover illustration: Photograph courtesy of Dr. James Onsando Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Foreword
This collection of papers represents some of those given at the International Congress for Plant Pathology held in Turin in 2008 in the session with the title “The Role of Plant Pathology in Food Safety and Food Security”. Although food safety in terms of “Is this food safe to eat?” did not receive much direct attention it is, nevertheless, an important topic. A crop may not be safe to eat because of its inherent qualities. Cassava, for example, is cyanogenic, and must be carefully prepared if toxicosis is to be avoided. Other crops may be safe to eat providing they are not infected or infested by microorganisms. Mycotoxins are notorious examples of compounds which may contaminate a crop either pre- or post-harvest owing to the growth of fungi. Two papers in this book deal with toxins, one by Barbara Howlett and co-workers and the other by Robert Proctor and co-workers. In the first of these, the role of sirodesmin PL, a compound produced by Leptosphaeria maculans, causal agent of blackleg disease of oilseed rape (Brassica napus), is discussed. The authors conclude that the toxin plays a role in virulence of the fungus and may also be beneficial in protecting the pathogen from other competing micro-organisms but there seem to be no reports of its mammalian toxicity. In the second paper, attention is drawn to the many plant diseases caused by the fungus, Fusarium proliferatum, and the fact that it produces a wide range of biologically active metabolites,
Data Loading...
