History of Seed Pathology
Seed pathology, coined in the 1940s by Mary Noble and Paul Neergaard, studies seed transmission, pathogenesis, and disease epidemiology
• The first mention of plant parasitic microorganisms (nematodes) with seed was in the mid-1590s in William Shakespeare's play "Love’s Labour’s Lost."
• Remnant's observations in 1637 and Hellwig's studies in 1699 confirmed the link between seed and disease.
• Jethro Tull discovered that soaking seeds in salty water before planting improved yield.
• Needham observed nematodes in cockled wheat seeds in 1743, revealing Anguina tritici caused ear cockles.
• French botanist du Tillet in 1755 showed that stinking or hill bunt of wheat was caused by a "poisonous substance" present in the dust on the seed surface.
• Prevost in 1807 proved that stinking bunt of wheat was caused by a parasitic fungus, Tilletia caries, and showed the effectivity of copper sulfate in managing this disease.
• Kuhn and Frank in 1858 and 1883 demonstrated seed-borne behavior of nematodes and fungi in common bean seeds.
• Ozanne used copper sulfate and common salt to treat sorghum seed against smut in 1885.
• Virus seed transmission was first studied by Adolf Eduard Mayer in 1886.
• Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli in common bean seeds was also shown to be seed-borne.
• Seed protection by application of chemicals was introduced by Saunders, Bedford, and Mackkay in 1894.
Seed-Born Pathogens: A Century-Long Evolution
• Xanthomonas stewartii was the first bacterial pathogen recorded as seed-borne in 1909.
• Organic mercuries were used for seed treatment in Germany in 1913.
• Burns used mercuric chloride in India in 1914 to prevent Rhizoctonia attack.
• Allard studied external seed transmission of virus, TMV on tobacco and tomato in 1915.
• Rolfs showed internal transmission of Xanthomonas campestris pv. malvacearum in cotton seeds in 1915.
• McClintock suggested that Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) was transmitted by seeds in 1916.
• Stewart and Reddick in 1917 showed seed transmission of CMV in bean seeds.
• Darnell-Smith introduced copper carbonate for dusting seed treatment of wheat seeds in 1917.
• Doolittle and Gilbert in 1919 demonstrated seed transmission of CMV in wild cucumber.
• Hilson used organomercurials for the control of sorghum smut in India in 1925.
• Uppal in 1929 reported control of brown spot of rice and grain smut of sorghum using seed treatment with organomercurials.
• Von Schemling and Kulka (1966) established that carboxin-treated seed effectively controlled internally seed-borne disease loose smut of barley.
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