Open AccessPlant health emergencies demand open science: Tackling a cereal killer on the run
Author(s) -
Sophien Kamoun,
Nicholas J. Talbot,
Tofazzal Islam
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plos biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.127
H-Index - 271
eISSN - 1545-7885
pISSN - 1544-9173
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000302
Subject(s) - biology , food security , multidisciplinary approach , microbiology and biotechnology , disease , population , outbreak , environmental health , agriculture , ecology , political science , medicine , pathology , virology , law
Outbreaks of emerging plant diseases and insect pests are increasing at an alarming rate threatening the food security needs of a booming world population. The role of plant pathologists in addressing these threats to plant health is critical. Here, we share our personal experience with the appearance in Bangladesh of a destructive new fungal disease called wheat blast and stress the importance of open-science platforms and crowdsourced community responses in tackling emerging plant diseases. Benefits of the open-science approach include recruitment of multidisciplinary experts, application of cutting-edge methods, and timely replication of data analyses to increase the robustness of the findings. Based on our experiences, we provide some general recommendations and practical guidance for responding to emerging plant diseases.