Anther-smut fungi provide a powerful system to study host-pathogen specialization and coevolution, with hundreds of Microbotryum species specialized on diverse Caryophyllaceae plants, castrating their hosts through manipulation of the hosts' reproductive organs to facilitate disease transmission. Microbotryum fungi have exceptional genomic characteristics, including dimorphic mating-type chromosomes, that make this genus anexcellent model for studying the evolution of mating systems and their influence on population genetics structure and adaptive potential. Important insights into adaptation, coevolution, host specialization, and mating system evolution have been gained using anther-smut fungi, with new insights made possible by the recent advent of genomic approaches. We illustrate with Microbotryum case studies how using a combination of comparative genomics, population genomics, and transcriptomics approaches enables the integration of different evolutionary perspectives across different timescales. We also highlight current challenges and suggest future studies that will contribute to advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying adaptive processes in populations of fungal pathogens.

中文翻译：

---

通过将种群和比较基因组学相结合，了解Cast割花药真菌的适应性，协同进化，寄主特化和交配系统。

花药曲霉真菌提供了一个强大的系统来研究宿主-病原体的专一性和协同进化，其中数百种专门用于多种石竹科植物的微型细菌，通过操纵宿主的生殖器官来cast除宿主，以促进疾病传播。微型真菌具有特殊的基因组特性，包括双态交配型染色体，这使得该属成为研究交配系统的进化及其对种群遗传结构和适应潜力的影响的优秀模型。使用花药突变真菌已经获得了有关适应性，协同进化，宿主特化和交配系统进化的重要见解，而随着最近基因组学方法的出现，新的见解成为了可能。我们通过Microbotryum案例研究来说明如何将比较基因组学，种群基因组学和转录组学方法结合使用，从而实现跨不同时间尺度的不同进化观点的整合。我们还将重点介绍当前的挑战，并建议未来的研究，这些研究将有助于增进我们对真菌病原体种群适应性过程潜在机制的理解。