The rust fungi (Pucciniales) are the most speciose natural group of plant pathogens, members of which possess some of the most complex lifecycles in biology. How natural selection works on the Pucciniales has been the subject of several hypotheses in mycology. This study uses molecular age estimation using sequence data from multiple loci, and cophylogeny reconciliation analyses to test hypotheses regarding how the aecial and telial stages in the lifecycle of rust fungi may have differentially impacted diversification in the Pucciniales. Molecular age estimates show that the timing of diversification in the Pucciniales correlates with the diversification of their gymnosperm and angiosperm hosts. Host reconciliation analyses suggest that systematic relationships of hosts from the aecial stage of the Pucciniales lifecycle better reflect the systematic relationships among the Pucciniales. The results demonstrate the relative importance of this stage on the overall evolution of the Pucciniales and supports hypotheses made by Leppik over half a century ago. However, these hypotheses are not as strongly supported in more recently derived lineages of rust fungi because codiversification patterns with hosts are not as clear. This study represents the first evaluation of how different life stages in the Pucciniales shape the evolution of these fungi.

锈菌（Pucciniales）是植物病原体中最特殊的天然组，其成员具有一些生物学中最复杂的生命周期。自然选择如何在棕褐色上起作用是真菌学中几种假设的主题。这项研究使用了来自多个基因座的序列数据进行分子年龄估算，并进行了系统发生和解分析，以检验关于锈菌生命周期中的阶段和目的阶段可能如何差异影响锈菌多样性的假说。分子年龄估计表明，在Pucciniales中多样化的时机与裸子植物和被子植物宿主的多样性相关。主机和解的分析表明，从的aecial阶段主机的系统关系柄锈菌生命周期更好地反映之间的系统关系柄锈菌。结果证明了这一阶段对Pucciniales总体进化的相对重要性，并支持了Leppik在半个多世纪前提出的假设。但是，这些假设在最近衍生的锈菌谱系中得到的支持不强，因为与宿主的共同多样化模式尚不明确。这项研究代表了对Pucciniales中不同生命阶段如何影响这些真菌进化的首次评估。