THE 2007 FRAZIER-ZAUMEYER LECTURE Bean Improvement Cooperative 50^^ Anniversary Meeting, Madison, WI FROM RALPH CORBETT'S BEAN FIELD TO MOLECULAR DETAILS OF BROAD SPECTRUM POTYVIRUS RESISTANCE

Genetic resistance to plant viruses has been used for at least eighty years to control agricultural losses to viral diseases. To date, hundreds of naturally occurring genes for resistance to plant viruses have been reported from studies of both monocot and dicot crops, their wild relatives and the plant model, Arabidopsis. While viruses are relatively simple genetic entities and much progress has occurred since the earliest studies, the mechanisms by which the many symptoms of disease are generated, and the mechanisms by which plants resist these effects remain largely unknown. In fact, the study of plant resistance genes raise many fundamental questions regarding the molecular, biochemical, cellular and physiological mechanisms involved in the plant-virus interaction and the evolution of these interactions in natural and agricultural ecosystems.