If I asked you to name an infectious disease that has the potential to really screw us over, what would you pick? Maybe you’d choose flu, HIV or Ebola. Perhaps you’d name an upstart like MERS, or a more established threat like malaria or tuberculosis.

But how many of you named potato blight, rice blast or wheat rust? How many have even heard of cassava mosaic virus or black pod rot? Plant diseases don’t grab the limelight as readily as those that directly infect humans or other animals, but they can be equally devastating. They kill the crops we rely upon for both food and wealth, and they have a track record of crippling nations and changing the world.

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