Plants are required to defend themselves continually against attack by biological agents and also from environmental stresses. Plant immobility and lack of an immunological system like occurs in animals, forced them to develop defence mechanisms, where each cell holds induced defence capacity as well as a pre-formed defence. Such mechanisms can be influenced by herbicide use. The present literature review aims to present the effects of herbicides in plant defence mechanisms to pathogens, as well as to analyse possible consequences of this knowledge on weed and crop management. Some herbicides influence disease severity, inducing or inhibiting phytoalexins synthesis. Herbicides belonging to the diphenylethers chemical group generates of reactive species of oxygen, which intervene in activation of defence genes responsible by the synthesis of phytoalexins and also in hypersensitive response. The use of sublethal glyphosate rates cause opposite effects, decreasing production of phytoalexins and increasing disease severity. Evidence of such effects requires adoption of management strategies in order to reduce their negative impacts or which may benefit from those effects, as can be the case with the use of mycoherbicides.
diseases; phytoalexins; diphenylethers; glyphosate; crop management
