Review of Studies on Rare Earth against Plant Disease

Agricultural application of rare earth (RE) has been generalized for several decades, and it is involved in crops, vegetables and stock raising in China. However, all the researches on RE mainly focus on the fields such as plant physiological activity, physiological and biochemical mechanism, sanitation toxicology and environmental security. Plant protection by using RE and the induced resistance of plant against diseases were summarized. The mechanism of rare earth against plant disease is highlighted, which includes following two aspects. First, RE elements can control some phytopathogen directly and reduce its virulence to host plant. Another possibility is that RE elements can affect host plant and induce the plant to produce some resistance to disease.