Global patterns of cereal diseases and the impacts of breeding for host plant resistance

Plant breeding for host plant resistance to pathogens brings together different disciplinary domains, especially genetics and plant pathology. The strategies underpinning plant breeding have therefore, logically, been influenced by a number of paradigms that have dominated the field of disease management. This chapter provides a brief overview of these paradigms, where the authors link the implications for plant breeding. In doing so, the authors try to follow an approximate (1) linear and (2) chronological order. Yet the authors are aware that, depending on the considered crop and region, (1) there might have been occasional jumps and step-backs leading to non-linear paths, and (2) the chronology of events may have much varied.