Successful Technologies and Approaches Used to Develop and Manage Resistance Against Crop Diseases and Pests

Food security is highly dependent on many factors, including biological, climate-related, and political factors. Since shortly after Mendel showed that phenotypic traits could be inherited through hybridization, scientists have been using classical genetics to increase crop production. Part of the increase in crop production has been the result of increased resistance to biotic constraints. Without this effort, losses due to pathogens and pests would be catastrophic in our most important food crops. This chapter highlights some of those success stories where major resistance genes singly or in gene pyramids have been used to reduce losses due to pathogens and pests. In addition, the use of transgenic plants that express exogenous genes controlling resistance, and the use of biological or chemical products that induce host resistance, are reviewed.