A consolidative synopsis of the MALDI-TOF MS accomplishments for the rapid diagnosis of microbial plant disease pathogens

In an era when the rising global population has ever-increasing demands, plant resources form an integral part of the basic needs. Plant diseases ruin the harvest and also the hopes of the farmers and the consumers as well. The following review focuses on consolidating the contributions of matrix assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectroscopy (MALDI-TOF MS) for microbial plant pathogen detection. MALDI-TOF MS detection of plant pathogenic bacteria, phytoplasma, fungi and viruses has been surveyed and an up to date executive summary presented. The methodological aspects of plant pathogens detection using MALDI-TOF MS have been briefly highlighted. The relatively lesser research interest in the area of implementing MALDI-TOF MS for detection of plant pathogens has been discussed and the plausible reasons for the same has been speculated and the need for involving the highly evolved state-of-the-art MALDI/LDI MS sophistications, has been suggested as future perspective.