Resistance vs tolerance, lets put some definition to it

[Fusion_power]

I snipped this from another website so we can engage in a conversation about the difference. In context, it is about a parasitic mite. I think we can extend the definition to embrace fungal and bacterial diseases.

At the present time, semantic confusion exists among bee scientists whenever the terms resistance and tolerance are utilized. According to Schneider and Ayres (2008 Schneider, D. S., & Ayres, J. S. (2008). Two ways to survive infection: What resistance and tolerance can teach us about treating infectious diseases. Nature Reviews Immunology, 8, 889–895. doi:10.1038/nri2432), resistance and tolerance are two separate major pathways for survival to infestations. Raberg, Graham, and Read (2009 Raberg, L., Graham, A. L., & Read, A. F. (2009). Decomposing health: tolerance and resistance to parasites in animals. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364, 37–49.10.1098/rstb.2008.0184) define resistance as “the ability of a host to limit parasite burden” and tolerance as the ability of a host “to limit the damage caused by a given parasite burden”. They state that the advantage of their definitions is that resistance and tolerance can be considered both independently and in parallel.

[Lee]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

define resistance as “the ability of a host to limit parasite burden” and tolerance as the ability of a host “to limit the damage caused by a given parasite burden”.

I grew Plum Regal this year which is claimed to have "intermediate resistance to early blight."

Based on my single observation this year (and previous as well), I would say this claim is accurate. While all other varieties in the garden were going down from early blight & septoria, this one kept growing/producing strong.

However, once blight and septoria did show up on Plum Regal, it went down hard and fast.

This seems like a possible case of resistance to early blight but little tolerance of it according to the above definitions.

Thoughts?

Lee

[carolyn137]

Darrel,as you probably know I've been harping on the difference between resistance and tolerance for many years here at Tvill and elsewhere.

I was first alerted to it when some commercial growers bought tomato seeds and they were advertised as having resistance to this and that disease,and they weren't.

They sued the companies for misrepresentation and won, and after that the Association of Tomato growers,or whatever they are called,said that commercial breeders should use tolerance and not resistance.

Resistance implies total resistance,no such thing IMO. Just too many darn variables that can and do affect the possiblle presence of tomato diseases.

Carolyn