How fungi recognize (and infect) plants | Mennat El Ghalid
Each year, the world loses enough food to feed half a billion people to fungi, the most destructive pathogens of plants. Mycologist and TED Fellow Mennat El Ghalid explains how a breakthrough...
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"Will the blight end the chestnut? The farmers rather guess not. It keeps smouldering at the roots And sending up new shoots Till another parasite Shall come to end the blight." At the beginning of the 20th century, the eastern American chestnut population, counting nearly four billion trees, was completely decimated by a fungal infection. Fungi are the most destructive pathogens of plants, including crops of major economic importance. Can you imagine that today, crop losses associated with fungal infection are estimated at billions of dollars per year, worldwide? That represents enough food calories to feed half a billion people. And this leads to severe repercussions, including episodes of famine in developing countries, large reduction...
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"Will the blight end the chestnut? The farmers rather guess not. It keeps smouldering at the roots And sending up new shoots Till another parasite Shall come to end the blight." At the beginning of the 20th century, the eastern American chestnut population, counting nearly four billion trees, was completely decimated by a fungal infection. Fungi are the most destructive pathogens of plants, including crops of major economic importance. Can you imagine that today, crop losses associated with fungal infection are estimated at billions of dollars per year, worldwide? That represents enough food calories to feed half a billion people. And this leads to severe repercussions, including episodes of famine in developing countries, large reduction...
