Download Lesson 8.2 Introduction

Roland-Story High School
Agriculture Technology Class
Lesson 8.2 -- Diving into diseases
Preface:
Similar to insects and weeds studied earlier in this unit, diseases can inflict detrimental
consequences to the overall health and productivity of plants. For plant producers, diseases can
reduce crop quality and ultimately affect profitability of the operation.
Most plant diseases can be traced to three disease-causing agents including bacteria, fungi, and
viruses. These pathogens are microscopic in size, but can colonize very rapidly to cause severe
plant health issues. Proper identification of symptoms that indicate the presence of diseasecausing agents is critical for treatment of plant disease. Knowing the basic information about how
these organisms infect plant tissue will enable students to create a management plan to prevent an
outbreak from growing into a problem.
Concepts:
1. Plant disease-causing agents, such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses cause detrimental health effects
on plants.
2. Plant diseases cause visible symptoms in plant growth, such as defoliation, abscesses, growths,
and decaying of plant tissue.
3. Knowledge of disease prevention and treatment is important to protect plants from infection.
4. Plant disease-causing agents are microscopic and damage plants in various ways.
Essential Questions:
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What types of damage are the results of plant diseases?
How does disease treatment differ from disease prevention?
Why are plant diseases a formidable foe to agricultural producers?
What are the methods of disease reproduction and infection of plant tissue?
How do weather and climate affect plant diseases?
How do you identify plant diseases?
How do diseases differ from other plant pests?
What are the two types of disease control?
What is the difference between an infection and an outbreak?
How do disease-causing agents differ?
Key Terms:
Bacterium
Disease
Fungus
Incubation
Infection
Inoculation
Mycoplasma
Noninfectious disease
Pathogens
Penetration
Prevention
Treatment
Viroid
Viruses