Assessing the Consequences of Microbial Infection in Field Trials: Seen, Unseen, Beneficial, Parasitic and Pathogenic

Microbial infections of crop plants present an ongoing threat to agricultural production. However, in recent years, we have developed a more nuanced understanding of the ecological role of microbes and how they interact with plants. This includes an appreciation of the influence of crop physiology and environmental conditions on the expression of disease symptoms, the importance of non-pathogenic microbes on host plants and pathogens, and the capacity for plants to act as hosts for human pathogens. Alongside this we now have a variety of tools available for the identification and quantification of microbial infections on crops grown under field conditions. This review summarises some of the consequences of microbial infections in crop plants, and discusses how new and established assessment tools can be used to understand these processes. It challenges our current assumptions in yield loss relationships and offers understanding of the potential for more resilient crops.