Evolution of pathogenicity in obligate fungal pathogens and allied genera

Moytri RoyChowdhury; Jake Sternhagen; Ya Xin; Binghai Lou; Xiaobai Li; Chunnan Li

doi:10.7717/peerj.13794

Evolution of pathogenicity in obligate fungal pathogens and allied genera

PeerJ. 2022 Aug 25:10:e13794. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13794. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Moytri RoyChowdhury¹, Jake Sternhagen², Ya Xin³, Binghai Lou⁴, Xiaobai Li⁵, Chunnan Li³

Affiliations

¹ Infectious Diseases Program, California Department of Public Health, Richmond, California, United States of America.
² Riverside School of Medicine, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, United States of America.
³ Hangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, P.R. China.
⁴ Guangxi Academy of Specialty Crops, Guilin, Guangxi, P.R. China.
⁵ Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, P.R. China.

Abstract

Obligate fungal pathogens (ascomycetes and basidiomycetes) and oomycetes are known to cause diseases in cereal crop plants. They feed on living cells and most of them have learned to bypass the host immune machinery. This paper discusses some of the factors that are associated with pathogenicity drawing examples from ascomycetes, basidiomycetes and oomycetes, with respect to their manifestation in crop plants. The comparisons have revealed a striking similarity in the three groups suggesting convergent pathways that have arisen from three lineages independently leading to an obligate lifestyle. This review has been written with the intent, that new information on adaptation strategies of biotrophs, modifications in pathogenicity strategies and population dynamics will improve current strategies for breeding with stable resistance.

Keywords: Biotrophy; Evolution; Obligate Pathogens; Parasitism; Pathogenicity; Virulance.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adaptation, Physiological
Ascomycota* / genetics
Oomycetes*
Plant Breeding
Virulence / genetics

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Innovation and Demonstration Promotion Fund of Hangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No. 2019HNCT-07, Agricultural and Social Development Project of Hangzhou, No. 20201203B104. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.