Rice viruses pose a significant threat to global rice production, and their pathogenic mechanisms involve intricate interactions between the viruses and host plants. During pathogenesis, rice viruses employ diverse strategies to manipulate host cellular processes and promote viral infection and replication. Emerging research has uncovered common mechanisms underlying the pathogenicity of different rice viruses, suggesting the existence of potentially conserved targets for antiviral interference. This review summarizes recent global advances in rice virus research, systematically elucidating the distinct pathogenic mechanisms among various rice viruses while highlighting conserved molecular strategies shared by viral pathogenicity factors. The insights presented aim to facilitate the development of broad-spectrum antiviral rice breeding and effective disease management strategies. In addition, future research directions for elucidating the molecular mechanisms of rice virus pathogenesis are outlined.

Beet necrotic yellow vein virus (BNYVV)-caused sugar beet rhizomania is the most important viral disease in sugar beet, severely affecting beet yield and sugar content. BNYVV is persistently transmitted by Polymyxa betae, a root-specific parasitic plasmodiophorid. The resting spores of Polymyxa betae can survive in soil for long periods of time. Thus, the viral disease is difficult to be eradicated once it occurs. Currently, plan-ting resistant varieties is the only way to reduce losses caused by the disease. In recent years, the large-scale planting of single resistant varieties leads to emergence of resistance-breaking BNYVV isolates in sugar beet producing areas worldwide, including Xinjiang and Heilongjiang in China. These virus strains have broken the antiviral activity of the resistance varieties, leading to more severe rhizomania. This paper reviews the research overview of sugar beet rhizomania, focuses on recent research progress on BNYVV-plant-vector interactions, and prospects future research directions for urgent breakthroughs.

Plants and pathogens have developed a highly complex interactive relationship through long-term co-evolution, fundamentally driven by a molecular arms race between pathogen effectors and the plant immune system. Plants activate multilayered defense responses through their innate immune system to combat pathogen infection, while pathogens in turn have evolved diverse effectors that precisely target critical immune signaling nodes. These effectors not only interfere with fundamental immune pathways including PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) but also modulate defense networks like plant hormone signaling and reactive oxygen species metabolism. More critically, pathogen effectors achieve systemic reprogramming of the host transcriptional network through strategies such as directly regulating host gene expression, targeting key transcriptional regulatory elements, manipulating epigenetic modifications, and post-transcriptional modifications, thereby facilitating immune evasion and pathogenic infection. Recently, there have been significant advances in understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of pathogen-mediated manipulation of plant immune responses. This review systematically examines the molecular mechanisms by which pathogen effectors regulate host immune responses through interfering with defense signaling pathways and reprogramming the host transcriptome. We also explore the application of these findings in developing disease-resistant materials, providing a theoretical foundation for elucidating plant-pathogen interactions and advancing disease-resistant crop breeding.

The growth, development, environmental adaptation, and infection processes of plant pathogenic fungi are dynamically orchestrated through multi-layered molecular networks, with post-translational modifications (PTMs) functioning as critical "molecular hubs" coordinating these biological and pathogenic programs. This paper reviews several important types of PTMs in plant pathogenic fungi, including phosphorylation, glycosylation, ubiquitination, lipidation, novel acylation, redox modifications, and ADP-ribosylation. It explores their regulatory mechanisms in the biological and pathogenic processes of plant pathogenic fungi, summarizes the main strategies and methods for studying PTMs, analyzes the relationship between PTMs and plant disease control, and proposes future perspectives in the study of PTMs governing the pathogenesis of plant pathogenic fungi. The aim is to provide a theoretical foundation for deciphering the pathogenic mechanisms of plant pathogenic fungi and innovating sustainable disease management approaches.

The bacterial pathogen Xanthomonas delivers type III effector proteins (T3Es) into plant cells via its type III secretion system (T3SS), subverting host immunity, metabolism, and phytohormone signaling networks, ultimately causing devastating diseases such as bacterial wilt and leaf blight. This review systematically summarizes the functional diversity of Xanthomonas T3Es and their molecular mechanisms: Transcription activator-like (TAL) effectors activate host gene expression by binding to specific promoter elements, while non-TAL effectors suppress plant immune responses via post-translational modifications (e.g., ubiquitination, phosphorylation) or protein-protein interactions. To counter pathogen infection, plants have evolved multiple defense strategies, including NLR (nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat) receptor-mediated effector-triggered immunity (ETI), "executor" genes that hijack TAL effectors via EBE (effector-binding element) traps to induce hypersensitive responses, and mutations in susceptible gene promoters conferring resistance. By deciphering these molecular interactions between Xanthomonas T3Es and host plants, this review provides critical insights and technical strategies for developing eco-friendly plant disease management strategies.

Utilizing disease resistance genes, particularly those encoding NLR (Nucleotide-binding, leucine-rich repeat receptor) proteins, offers the most cost-effective strategy for crop disease management. These genes have become a major research focus in plant pathology due to their frequent identification and broad application potential in breeding disease-resistant crops. Key advances in NLR research include: 1) the efficient cloning of NLR genes and their corresponding pathogen avirulence (Avr) genes; 2) mechanistic insights into NLR activation pathways, such as resistosome-mediated calcium signaling and TNL (TIR-NB-LRR)-dependent production of NAD⁺-derived signaling molecules; and 3) innovative applications in molecular engineering, including chimeric protein engineering, cross-species resistance transfer, and co-transfer of helper NLRs. This review summarizes these advances and highlights future research directions by integrating high-throughput sequencing, artificial intelligence-based structural prediction, and gene editing to decode calcium signaling mechanisms and immune homeostasis regulation in NLR networks, thereby facilitating the development of durable and broad-spectrum disease-resistant crop varieties.

In the long-term co-evolution between plants and pathogens, plants have developed a sophisticated immune system to restrict pathogen invasion and damage. Among these, plasma membrane-tethered receptor-like kinases (RLKs) and receptor-like proteins (RLPs) are key components of the plant innate immune system. As pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), they activate pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) by sensing pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or host-derived damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). Although the core signaling pathways of PTI are highly conserved in plants, genetic variation in PRRs within and across species significantly influences their ligand recognition capability, signal transduction efficiency, and immune response intensity. This review summarizes the strategies for identifying PRRs, the biological significance of genetic variation, and their application potential in disease resistance breeding. It also discusses factors affecting the disease resistance spectrum conferred by PRRs and the future directions for high-throughput identification of PRR resistance genotypes.

Heterotrimeric G proteins, conserved signaling components in eukaryotes, consist of three subunits (Gα, Gβ, and Gγ) and serve as core elements in transmembrane signal transduction. In animals, G protein signaling is mediated through a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-dependent pathway involving guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs). In contrast, plants possess a significantly reduced number of heterotrimeric G protein subunits compared to animals, yet these proteins participate in a remarkably broad range of biological processes and play a central role, particularly in plant immune defense. This review systematically summarizes the molecular characteristics and structure-function relationships of plant heterotrimeric G protein subunits. It focuses on elucidating their regulatory networks and mechanistic roles in plant immune signaling and proposes future research directions for key scientific questions in this field, aiming to provide valuable references for related research.

Plant diseases, caused by diverse pathogenic agents, are key constraints limiting crop yield and quality improvement. Among these, diseases caused by bacterial pathogens are characterized by rapid spread, challenging control, and severe damage. Through sustained co-evolution with pathogens, plants have evolved multi-layered defense systems. Pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) constitutes plants′ primary defense layer, mediated by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that recognize conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). This surveillance mechanism effectively restricts infection by non-adapted pathogens. However, pathogens continuously evolve evasion strategies to subvert host recognition. Consequently, the uncovering of new PAMPs is critical for countering pathogen virulence adaptation and enhancing plant immunity. This paper comprehensively reviews the typical characteristics and identification methods of PAMPs from phytopathogenic bacteria, collates the reported bacterial PAMPs along with their recognition mechanisms and research progress on downstream signaling pathways. It aims to provide theoretical frameworks for discovering and functionally characterizing new PAMPs while establishing scientific groundwork for developing sustainable crop protection strategies.

Gene editing enables precise modification of specific genomic loci and has been widely used in plant disease resistance engineering. This technology is built upon programmable nucleases that have evolved through successive generations: zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated proteins (CRISPR-Cas) systems. The latter now dominates as the mainstream platform owing to its high efficiency and ease of programming. In addition to conventional targeted knockout mutagenesis, precision tools such as base editing, prime editing, and targeted integration have been progressively optimized and implemented in plant systems. In plant disease research, these technologies not only facilitate functional genomics studies but also accelerate the discovery of novel disease resistance genes through high-throughput functional gene screening and saturation mutagenesis libraries construction. Furthermore, they provide multidimensional strategies for creating disease-resistant germplasms. This review synthesizes the evolution of gene editing technologies and highlights their applications in crop disease resistance research, including the development of edited materials for wheat powdery mildew resistance, rice blast and bacterial blight resistance, as well as other critical pathosystems. This establishes actionable frameworks for mechanistically dissecting plant immunity and advancing precision breeding for sustainable crop protection.

Plant secondary metabolites are a class of small-molecule compounds non-essential for fundamental plant growth and development, including phenolic, terpenoids, and nitrogen-containing compounds. As integral components of the plant defense system, these metabolites play a core regulatory role in plant-microbe interactions. Microorganisms can modulate the accumulation of plant secondary metabolites through various strategies, such as activating the plant immune system or secreting plant hormones. Meanwhile, secondary metabolites can inhibit pathogen infection through diverse mechanisms: on the one hand, they can promote the synthesis of compounds like methyl salicylate to activate systemic acquired resistance against pathogens; on the other hand, secondary metabolites act as phytoalexins to directly inhibit microbial pathogens by disrupting pathogen membrane integrity, interfering with microbial metabolism, or inducing oxidative stress. Some metabolites additionally inhibit the synthesis and secretion of pathogen virulence factors. Furthermore, developing novel green pesticides based on plant secondary metabolites has become a highly promising research direction in the field of plant protection. This review systematically summarizes the multifunctional roles of plant secondary metabolites in plant-microbe interactions, detailing their involvement in activating plant immunity and outlining the molecular regulatory networks underpinning pathogen defense.

Plants emit a large variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during infection by the pathogenic microbes. These compounds can be classified into different types based on their chemical structures and biosynthetic pathways, primarily including volatile terpenoids (VTPs), volatile fatty acid derivatives (VAAs), volatile phenylpropanoids/benzenoids (VPBs) and nitrogen-containing volatiles. Given the general antimicrobial activity of plant VOCs and the large amount of emission following infection, these compounds have often been assumed to function in defence against pathogens. This review summarizes the recent advances in the field of plant VOCs and pathogens, focusing on the main components of plant VOCs, their direct antimicrobial effects, and their regulatory roles in plant self-resistance, while also provides an outlook on further investigations of plant VOCs in botanical pathogen resistance.

Rice blast, caused by Pyricularia oryzae, is a major biological constraint to rice production in China. It frequently causes outbreaks and epidemics across all rice-growing regions, posing a serious threat to high and stable yields. This study reviews the following aspects concerning rice blast: its occurrence and damage, the biology of P. oryzae and sources of infection, chemical agents for blast control, pathogenesis of P. oryzae and development of targets for green fungicides, avirulence genes of P. oryzae and major blast resistance genes in rice, mechanisms underlying rice blast resistance, and challenges in evaluating blast resistance in rice varieties. Furthermore, it outlines future research priorities for the green prevention and control of rice blast, aimed at enhancing sustainable management strategies for this disease in China.

Soil-borne wheat virus diseases, transmitted by the obligate parasite Polymyxa graminis, are caused by wheat yellow mosaic virus (WYMV) and Chinese wheat mosaic virus (CWMV) in China. The complete genomic sequences, molecular evolution, virus characteristics, and infection mechanisms of these two viruses have been intensively characterized. This article systematically reviews the pathogen biology, epidemiological distribution, transmission mechanisms, and molecular pathogenesis mediated by viral proteins, along with host resistance mechanisms involving functionally validated quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and cloned resistance genes. Meanwhile, disease-suppressive mechanisms mediated by the rhizosphere microbiota and current eco-friendly management strategies were examined. Finally, we propose that future efforts should be focused on identifying and utilizing key resistance genes in breeding resistant varieties and developing soil microecology-based disease control technologies, thereby establishing technical support systems for sustainable management of soil-borne wheat virus disease.

Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused by the Fusarium graminearum species complex (FGSC), is a globally significant fungal disease that poses a severe threat to wheat yield and quality. Due to the lack of resis-tant cultivars, chemical control has long been the primary strategy for managing FHB. However, with the growing demand for green and sustainable agriculture, biological control has become an increasingly important component of integrated disease management systems. In recent years, numerous biocontrol microorganisms have been identified and applied for FHB control, demonstrating considerable practical potential. This review summarizes microbial resources available for managing wheat FHB, outlines the underlying biocontrol mechanisms, evaluates the current status of biocontrol formulations development, and discusses the challenges associated with their application. Finally, we propose strategies to improve the development and utilization of biocontrol agents, aiming to provide theoretical and technological support for the sustainable management of FHB in wheat.

Wheat Fusarium crown rot (FCR) is mainly caused by Fusarium pseudograminearum. Influenced by straw returning to the field and conservation tillage practices, this disease has been exacerbated annually in the Huang-Huai-Hai wheat-maize double cropping region of China. The disease causes browning and rot at the base of the stem, leading to "white heads," withered stems, and shriveled grains, which seriously affects yield. The pathogen primarily infects through subterranean stems or the crown-root junction. After wheat harvest, the pathogen continues to reproduce on wheat stubble and spreads in fields via chopped straw, accumulating throughout the year. Infected seeds or harvesters are suspected to contribute to long-distance dissemination of the pathogen. Seedling resistance identification utilizes seed soaking or grain inoculation methods, while adult plant resistance identification prioritizes rapid investigation of white head incidence, combined with precise assessment of stem base rot severity. Comprehensive disease management adopts a tiered strategy emphasizing ecological regulation, supplemented by biological and chemical controls. Selecting crown rot-resistant wheat varieties such as ‘Hengguan 35’, and implementing integrated measures in severely affected fields - including deep soil plowing, chemical seed dressing, optimized fertilizer/water management, jointing-stage prevention, and delayed sowing - can effectively curb disease occurrence and mitigate yield losses, ensuring wheat yield stability and food security.

Phenylpyrrole(PPs)fungicides have emerged as a critical class of agrochemicals for plant disease management in modern agriculture due to their unique mode of action. However, the emergence and spread of field-resistant fungal strains pose a significant threat to their long-term efficacy. This review comprehensively summarizes the development history, representative compounds, modes of action, and resistance evolution of phenylpyrrole fungicides. It elaborates on the molecular resistance mechanisms in plant pathogenic fungi, focusing on mutations in key components of the Hog1-MAPK signaling pathway, including the histidine kinase gene Os1 (HHK3) and its downstream genes OS2, OS4, and OS5, as well as mutations in the transcription factor Mrr1 that lead to overexpression of the efflux pump AtrB. The review aims to provide a scientific basis for optimizing the application strategies and resistance management of phenylpyrrole fungicides.

Wheat stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, is a typical airborne disease that poses a serious threat to wheat production. Understanding the inoculum sources and migration pathways of stripe rust is of great significance for formulating effective disease management strategies. This review systematically summarizes the progress made over the past 70 years by 4 generations of rust researchers in identifying the sources and migration pathways through field surveys, population genetic analyses, and air trajectory simulations. An integrated research framework is proposed, emphasizing field investigation as the foundation, population genetics as the core, and air trajectory simulations as a means of validation. The review also discusses the potential to refine and adjust these routes through the integration of emerging technologies, and proposes a shift from qualitative to quantitative research, thereby contributing to the development of sustainable disease management strategies.

The development of plant diseases is not solely driven by plant-pathogen interactions but also arises from complex networks involving plants, pathogens, and microbiota, with microbe-microbe interactions playing a critical role. Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing and microbe-microbe interaction studies have highlighted the capacity of pathogens to reshape plant microbiome composition, influencing microbial diversity and revealing the function of the core microbiota under diseased conditions. During disease progression, microbial interactions, such as resource competition, contact-dependent interaction, and chemical signal interference, can either facilitate or suppress pathogen colonization and virulence. This review synthesizes current knowledge on microbiome structural dynamics during plant disease, examines the competitive and cooperative interactions between microbiota members and pathogens, and outlines promising future directions such as the strategic use of biocontrol agents and the exploration of biocontrol agent-pathogen and biocontrol agent-microbiome interactions. These insights provide a conceptual framework for improving plant disease management and designing microbiomes that promote plant health.

A wide variety of microorganisms inhabit the surfaces and interiors of the plants. These microorganisms and their functional substances are collectively referred to as the plant microbiome, which has an impact on a series of basic life activities of plants, such as nutrient acquisition, immune regulation, and stress tolerance. This article focuses on the latest research progress of the plant microbiome, elaborating on the formation rules of the plant microbiota and its regulatory mechanisms on host phenotypes, and deeply exploring the applications of the plant microbiome in disease control. Moreover, in view of the controversial points regarding the role of the plant microbiota in triggering or exacerbating diseases, this article further discusses the emerging research paradigm of the pathobiome, as well as its action mechanisms and driving factors. In the future, through the cross integration of artificial intelligence, multi-omics technologies, and classical plant pathology research techniques, the formation mechanisms of the symbiotic state and pathogenic state of the plant microbiome will be deeply revealed. This will lay an important theoretical foundation for accurately exploring and utilizing the beneficial traits of the plant microbiome, establishing an efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly plant disease control system, and promoting sustainable agricultural development.

Soil-borne pathogens are responsible for a variety of crop diseases, leading to substantial economic losses and posing a significant threat to global agricultural productivity. Due to the distinct infection cycle characteristics of soil-borne diseases, accurate quantification of pathogen load in pre-sowing soil is crucial for effective disease management. This review systematically evaluates the development of quantitative detection methods for soil-borne plant pathogens, with a focus on qPCR technology, which is distinguished by its high sensitivity, specificity, and absolute quantification capabilities. We outline standardized protocols and key factors for large-volume soil processing and qPCR-based detection systems. Furthermore, we analyze the correlation between soil pathogen abundance and disease occurrence, as well as its implications in disease risk warning systems. We assess recent advancements in pathogen detection technologies both domestically and internationally, along with emerging trends. This comprehensive review aims to provide researchers, agronomic service providers, and policymakers with a scientific foundation and technical guidance for improving soil-borne disease surveillance and control strategies.

Plant diseases can cause severe damages to agricultural production. Timely and accurate identification of plant diseases is the basis and prerequisite for effective disease management. With the rapid development of information technology, the research and applications of plant disease identification by using image processing technology are increasing, which improves the levels of the monitoring and management of plant diseases and provides powerful supports for ensuring agricultural safety production. In this comprehensive review, the problems and challenges in the research and applications of plant disease image recognition were systematically discussed from the aspects of plant disease image recognition, disease image acquisition, disease image preprocessing, disease image segmentation, disease image feature extraction, disease image feature selection, disease image recognition models, and their practical applications. Simultaneously, the relevant solutions were proposed. Furthermore, the research and applications of plant disease image recognition in the future were prospected from the aspects including acquisition and management of plant disease images, key techniques for plant disease image recognition, and multi-platform plant disease image recognition. The aim of this review is to provide references for the research and applications of plant disease image recognition and to promote the development of plant protection informatization and smart phytoprotection.