Disease resistance refers to the ability of a plant or animal to limit or avoid diseases and infections caused by pathogens like bacteria, viruses, and fungi. There are two main types of disease resistance:
Plants and animals have evolved various forms of innate immunity over time to improve disease resistance. For humans, this includes skin as a barrier and generalized responses like inflammation, fever, and phagocytic cells that ingest pathogens.
Additionally, the adaptive immune system develops specialized antibodies and immune cells that target specific pathogens after an initial exposure, providing long-lasting protection against recurrence of that disease. Vaccinations work by stimulating adaptive immunity without causing actual infection.
While innate immunity offers general protection, adaptive responses are much stronger and the basis of immunological memory. The ability to remember past pathogens allows faster, more effective attacks upon subsequent encounters with the same illness - sometimes preventing full-blown infection.
Both innate and adaptive systems work cooperatively to boost overall disease resistance. However, in some cases pathogens can still overwhelm immune defenses, especially in young, elderly or immunocompromised people, resulting in infection and disease.
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In crop breeding and animal husbandry, choosing parent lines with strong heritable disease resistance leads to offspring with better resilience, fitness, and production outcomes. Certain fungi and bacteria applied to plants can also induce systemic acquired resistance (SAR) to prime innate defenses against future invasion by pathogens.
In summary, disease resistance limits infection via defensive barriers, multiple immune strategies, adaptive memory, and even beneficial microbes that keep pathogens at bay - all vital for the health of living organisms when faced with a continual onslaught of possible illnesses. Bolstering these protections through genetics, vaccines, probiotics and supportive care helps tip the scales in favor of enhanced wellness.