Directions for Future Research on Bacterial Pathogenicity

Abstract

When a single issue arises repeatedly in the course of a meeting, it suggests an important new area of research. The theme of this symposium was the dawning realization of the importance of latent infection. We saw it affecting every aspect of bacterial wilt pathology from breeding for disease resistance to understanding bacterial gene regulation and determining the effect of environment on the course of an epidemic. The interest in latent infection arises naturally from practical concerns such as the possibility that bacterial populations maintained in Solanum dulcamara can result in outbreaks of brown rot on potato, or that latently infected “resistant“ groundnut cultivars are actually suffering substantial yield reductions due to R. solanacearum infection.