Accepted Articles
COMMISSIONED MATERIAL – TANSLEY INSIGHT
Free Access

Rapid evolution in plant‐microbe interactions ‐ an evolutionary genomics perspective

Sophie de Vries

Institute of Population Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

Search for more papers by this author
Eva H. Stukenbrock

Environmental Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, and the Botanical Institute, Christian‐Albrechts University of Kiel, Am Botanischen Garden 9‐11, 24118 Kiel, Germany

Search for more papers by this author
Laura E. Rose

Corresponding Author

E-mail address: Laura.Rose@hhu.de

Institute of Population Genetics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

Corresponding author

Laura E. Rose, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

Email: Laura.Rose@hhu.de

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 29 January 2020

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi:10.1111/nph.16458

Abstract

The access to greater genomic resolution through new sequencing technologies is transforming the field of plant pathology. As scientists embrace these new methods, some overarching patterns and observations come into focus. Evolutionary genomic studies are used to determine not only the origins of pathogen lineages and geographic patterns of genetic diversity, but also to discern how natural selection structures genetic variation across the genome. With greater and greater resolution, we can now pinpoint the targets of selection on a large scale. At multiple levels, crypsis and convergent evolution are evident. Host jumps and shifts may be more pervasive than once believed and hybridization and horizontal gene transfer (HGT) likely play important roles in the emergence of genetic novelty.