About the Laboratory of Phytopathology

First and foremost, we are teachers. We feel that training future scientists is essential to the constantly evolving field of plant health, and through this, maintain and improve world food security.

Contributing to food security

Furthermore, we are passionate scientists with a fascination for plant pathology and a drive to contribute to new approaches of disease control. We perform research on plant diseases because they have a significant impact on world food security. By gaining fundamental knowledge and being able to translate this into application, we contribute to a sustainable world. The methodologies applied in our research are highly diverse, ranging from computational biology, to lab experiments and greenhouse studies.

Together with our students we form a team with broadly recognized expertise that has contributed to several breakthroughs in distinct areas of plant pathology.

History

The Laboratory of Phytopathology was founded in 1906 and has over time evolved to fit the requirements and emerging scientific insights of the field.

In the early days the activities were mainly devoted to disease diagnosis and the identification of causal agents. Over the years, however, phytopathology gained ground as a scientific discipline and in the 1950s this gradually culminated in an overarching discipline referred to as “plant protection”. To cope with the broad scope of organisms causing pests and diseases Wageningen University established four chairs:

Phytopathology
Virology
Entomology
Nematology

From 1950 onwards the newly named Laboratory of Phytopathology specializes in fungal and bacterial diseases and their causal agents. Over the last two decades research largely revolved around studying interactions of fungal and oomycete plant pathogens with plants and antagonists.

Recently we have expanded our scope by adding population genomics and microbiome research to our chair group.

Find out more about the Phytopathology people and their achievements