Plants directly or indirectly provide all of the food upon which humans and animals depend. Unfortunately, diseases are a major constraint to the productivity and quality of food and fiber crops. Plant pathology is the study of organisms and environmental factors that cause disease. The overall goal of this course is to introduce students to the concept of plant health. In this course, I expect students to 1) Develop a basic understanding of plant diseases, their cause, and management; 2) Develop an understanding of the basic biology of plant pathogens--i.e. how they cause disease, modes of spread, and survival; 3) Develop an understanding of the procedures involved in making a plant disease diagnosis; 4) Develop a knowledge base to critically evaluate issues in the popular media dealing with plant health.
Prerequisites
The prerequisite for this course is General Biology (Biol 1009), an equivalent general biology course, or by instructor consent.