The arms race continues: battle strategies between plants and fungal pathogens

Abstract

Plants are under constant attack by a vast array of pathogens. To impede their attackers they use both broad-spectrum and pathogen-specific defence mechanisms. The arms race between plants and fungal pathogens is fascinatingly varied, and what might be elicited as a plant defence mechanism against a pathogen could promote or enhance the virulence of other pathogens. Fungi use countermeasures to detoxify plant antimicrobial compounds and to evade host resistance mechanisms. Certain fungal species also manipulate the host hormone balance to create an environment that is beneficial to their survival. Several lines of evidence indicate a co-evolutionary arms race in which both plants and fungi can respond to changes that occur in their opponents.