A student may pursue studies in one of several basic areas of plant pathology. These areas include fungal plant pathology, plant bacteriology, plant virology, diagnostics, control, and also molecular and biochemical aspects of host-pathogen systems, biological control of pathogens and weeds, epidemiology, etiology, genetics of host-pathogen systems, soil microbiology, and pathogen taxonomy. In Florida, the variety of cultivated plants, coupled with an environment ideal for plant disease development, offers the student opportunities to study diseases of many crops as they develop. First-hand knowledge can be gained of diseases of field, fruit, ornamental, pasture, range, turf, and vegetable crops in temperate, subtropical, and tropical environments. Students who anticipate study in plant pathology at the University of Florida should include in their undergraduate programs training in botany, chemistry (through biochemistry), genetics, and microbiology.