The introduction of disease resistance characters into vegetable varieties during the past has been done using absolute resistance major genes. Until recently, resistance level was taken as of principal importance. The various situations resulting from such breeding strategy (successes and failures) are discussed. The trends of breeding work have changed during the last few years : the problem of resistance durability and the interest of partial resistances (lower susceptibility) are now being given greater consideration. Work carried out by breeders and plant pathologists in the I.N.R.A. research center of Montfavet-Avignon (France) are discussed here to illustrate these two features : - The assessment of the strength of resistance genes (with special reference to Tomato resistance to Cladosporium fulvam, Muskmelon resistance to CMV and Pepper resistance to PVY) and the development of varieties possessing several different resistance mechanisms will lead to the development of varieties with more durable resistance because they take into account the aggressiveness of plant pathogens. Two ways are examined and discussed by which to accumulate several resistance factors : the use of polygenic resistance (ex. : Pepper-Phytophthora capsici), which does not exclude a possible parasite adaptation to some components of this type of resistance, and the addition of various known major or minor genes governing different resistance mechanisms (ex. : Muskmelon-Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis ; Tomato-TMV ; Muskmelon-CMV). - The problem of the use of field genes which induce partial resistance, or only lower susceptibility, is approached here from the aspect of integrated disease control. It has been shown for P. capsici on Pepper and CMV on Muskmelon that some weak fungicide drenches or some cultural practices can enhance the varietal resistance efficiency by decreasing the amount of inoculum.