DNA Barcoding for Diagnosis and Monitoring of Fungal Plant Pathogens

Plant pathogenic fungi cause significant economic crop yield losses every year. Proper identification up to species level is a critical initial step in any investigation of plant infection, whether it is research driven or compelled by the need for rapid and accurate diagnostics during disease outbreak. Further, it is also helpful in making decision with respect to the monetary loss and investment to follow necessary disease management practices. The recent developments of DNA barcoding technology have drastically translated the epitome of species identification and show promise in providing a practical, standardized, species-level identification tool that can be used for biodiversity assessment, ecological studies, diagnostics and monitoring of fungal plant pathogens. This chapter provides a vision on the current use and impact of DNA barcoding approaches in diagnosis and monitoring of fungal plant pathogens. Moreover, an effort has been put forward to understand various marker genes associated with barcode process, their suitability, limitation and applicability in diagnostic and monitoring of fungal plant pathogens.