Global Challenges in Identifying Plant Pathogenic Fungi: An Overview with Suggestions for the Way Forward

Abstract

Fungal plant diseases are responsible for major crop and postharvest losses worldwide, with a significant socio-economic impact on many individuals who depend on an agriculture-based economy. This review discusses the major constraints in identifying plant pathogenic fungi (severely destructive on important crops) in sample collection, field, and morphological observations, fungal isolation, obtaining pure cultures, applying Koch’s postulates, DNA barcoding, phylogenetic analyses, and naming fungi (under “One fungus, One name” concept) based on selected case studies. Additionally, available strategies/methods to overcome those limitations up to date are also discussed. Ultimately, we proposed suggestions to minimize those limitations.