About this Research Topic
Many fungal species can switch lifestyles representing evolutionary transitions. This indicates that fungi have achieved ecological plasticity to ensure adaptability to different hosts and ecological niches. Fungal lifestyles switches are a dynamic process. It has been suggested that some endophytes can switch to pathogenic due to a host shift, an imbalance in nutrient exchange, environmental variations, microbial interactions, or mutations. These factors may contribute to the success of fungi in surpassing plant immunity, and ultimately leading to disease development. Therefore, to understand the dynamics of endophytism, the application of comparative genomics to unveil novel genes and its functions in endophytes would be crucial to deepen the knowledge of how the same fungal species can behave as an endophyte or pathogen.
Despite the large number of fungal genomes (over 11 550) in public databases (e.g., NCBI and JGI Portal), there is still a lack of evidence for different lifestyles in fungi, mainly because some studies focus merely on genome reports describing the assembly and its functional annotation. This impairs researchers from unveiling key genes involved in the infection process of fungal plant pathogens as well as molecular traits involved in lifestyle switching. Therefore, exploring the genomic basis of fungal pathogens and endophytes is crucial to look into the molecular traits playing a role in fungal pathogenesis, evolution, and adaptation, and in the transition from endophytic to a pathogenic state. Therefore, the goal of this Research Topic aims to:
1. Understand the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of plant pathogens.
2. Provide evidence on the role of secreted effectors as determinants of endophytism.
3. Identify molecular differences between endophytes and pathogens.
4. Understand which molecular traits determine lifestyle switches.
In this Research Topic we invite researchers to contribute with any aspects related to the mechanisms that may be involved in plant-pathogen cross-talks and in the transition from the endophytic to the pathogenic lifestyle. We welcome original articles, reviews, perspectives, minireviews, commentaries and opinion papers that may include:
1. Comparative genomics to determine which factors influence the specificity in endophytes, whether endophytic isolates are location-specific and/or host-adapted, or whether isolates can express multiple lifestyles.
2. Genomic studies to reveal gene functions related to pathogenicity.
3. Phylogenomic studies to help delimit fungal species boundaries and phylogenetic inferences.
4. Plant mycobiome studies to explore the endophytic community and its adaptation patterns in response to environmental stresses, as well as to understand whether dysbiosis affects the ability of fungi to switch life modes.
Despite the large number of fungal genomes (over 11 550) in public databases (e.g., NCBI and JGI Portal), there is still a lack of evidence for different lifestyles in fungi, mainly because some studies focus merely on genome reports describing the assembly and its functional annotation. This impairs researchers from unveiling key genes involved in the infection process of fungal plant pathogens as well as molecular traits involved in lifestyle switching. Therefore, exploring the genomic basis of fungal pathogens and endophytes is crucial to look into the molecular traits playing a role in fungal pathogenesis, evolution, and adaptation, and in the transition from endophytic to a pathogenic state. Therefore, the goal of this Research Topic aims to:
1. Understand the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of plant pathogens.
2. Provide evidence on the role of secreted effectors as determinants of endophytism.
3. Identify molecular differences between endophytes and pathogens.
4. Understand which molecular traits determine lifestyle switches.
In this Research Topic we invite researchers to contribute with any aspects related to the mechanisms that may be involved in plant-pathogen cross-talks and in the transition from the endophytic to the pathogenic lifestyle. We welcome original articles, reviews, perspectives, minireviews, commentaries and opinion papers that may include:
1. Comparative genomics to determine which factors influence the specificity in endophytes, whether endophytic isolates are location-specific and/or host-adapted, or whether isolates can express multiple lifestyles.
2. Genomic studies to reveal gene functions related to pathogenicity.
3. Phylogenomic studies to help delimit fungal species boundaries and phylogenetic inferences.
4. Plant mycobiome studies to explore the endophytic community and its adaptation patterns in response to environmental stresses, as well as to understand whether dysbiosis affects the ability of fungi to switch life modes.
Keywords: comparative genomics, endophytism, fungal evolution, lifestyle switching, phylogenomics, plant pathogens, virulence factors.
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
