What is plant tolerance (to a pathogen or an abiotic factor)?

Wikifarmer

Editorial team

1 min read
What is plant tolerance (to a pathogen or an abiotic factor)?

Tolerance occurs when plant traits allow insects to feed on them or pathogens to infect them. Still, the plant controls-restricts the level of damage (per unit of insect/pathogen present) and has strong recovery mechanisms.

When we talk about plant tolerance against an abiotic stress factor like drought, frost, or high soil salinity, we mostly focus on the ability of the plant to quickly recover from the damage that may have been caused. Moreover, abiotic plant tolerance may  include the ability of the plant to adopt (plasticity) and activate coping mechanisms/techniques to tackle the stress factor (production of specific enzymes, etc.)