Fortunately, no fungus can cause disease on all plant species, and although some plant-pathogenic fungi have quite a broad host range, most are highly limited in the range of plant species or even cultivars that they cause disease in. The mechanisms of host specificity have been extensively studied in many plant-pathogenic fungi, especially in fungal pathogens causing disease on economically important crops. Specifically, genes involved in host specificity have been identified during the last few decades. In this overview, we describe and discuss these host-specificity genes. These genes encode avirulence (Avr) proteins, proteinaceous host-specific toxins or secondary metabolites. We discuss the genomic context of these genes, their expression, polymorphism, horizontal transfer and involvement in pathogenesis.

幸运的是，没有一种真菌可以引起所有植物物种的疾病，尽管一些植物病原真菌具有相当广泛的寄主范围，但大多数在引起疾病的植物物种甚至栽培品种范围内都非常有限。 宿主特异性的机制已经在许多植物病原真菌中进行了广泛的研究，特别是在对重要经济作物造成疾病的真菌病原体中。具体而言，在过去的几十年中已经确定了涉及宿主特异性的基因。在本概述中，我们描述和讨论了这些宿主特异性基因。这些基因编码无毒 (Avr) 蛋白、蛋白质宿主特异性毒素或次级代谢物。我们讨论了这些基因的基因组背景、它们的表达、多态性、水平转移和发病机制。