Editorial: Fusarium pathogenesis: Infection mechanisms and disease progression in host plants

Abstract

14 15 The genus Fusarium is one of the most economically important groups of fungal plant pathogens 16 that cause serious diseases of many crops worldwide (Leslie and Summerell, 2013). The diseases 17 reduce yield, thereby resulting in economic losses (Nganje et al., 2004;Viljoen et al., 2020). In 18 addition, some Fusarium spp. can produce mycotoxins that contaminate infected grains and pose a 19 threat to human and animal health (Escrivá et al., 2015). Fusarium spp. employ intricate mechanisms 20 to overcome plant defenses. The fungus invades the host and colonizes it utilizing various infection 21 strategies. In the Fusarium genome, in addition to a region responsible for primary metabolism (core 22 genome), there are regions responsible for pathogen virulence (adaptive genome) (Ma et al., 2013).The understanding of the mechanisms that Fusarium use to overcome host defenses will provide 24 novel targets to control diseases. Therefore, this Research Topic aimed to highlight the recent works 25 on economically important species of Fusarium and their interactions with their hosts. This Research 26 Topic attracted 16 manuscripts, of which 8 were accepted and published. The articles cover 27 important outcomes of Fusarium pathogenesis, and some key aspects are summarized below.

Topics & Concepts