The Role of the Extracellular Matrix (ECM) in Phytopathogenic Fungi: A Potential Target for Disease Control

Crop yield loss as a result of disease has an economic impact on many people. To protect against disease, plant pathologists have developed various fungicides and disease resistant cultivars. In parallel, pathogens have evolved to escape from disease protection measures through, for example, the emergence of fungicide resistant isolates and the breakdown of disease resistant cultivars. To resolve these issues, we should develop various disease protection strategies for different types of target sites. Therefore, we must improve our understanding of the infection mechanism of pathogens. Pathogens possess several classes of genes that are essential for causing disease, i.e., pathogenicity genes or virulence genes, the products of which are called pathogenicity factors. Phytopathogenic fungi have developed various pathogenic factors, e.g., adhesion molecules to the host cells, sensor machineries against host plants, invasion machineries into the host cells, adaptation ability on the host cells, and so on. These factors comprise potential targets for disease control. Fungal adhesion to host cells is an initial important step to establish infection, which is considered to be a universal mechanism across plant pathogenic fungi. In this chapter, we provide a review of the components required for fungal adhesion to the host cell, and propose fungal adhesion as a potential target for disease control.