Plant pathogens frequently do not operate alone when causing diseases. Since the infection process is affected by the interaction between members of the parasite community, this question asks about the efficiency of disease control strategies which are usually tailored to manage only one microbial pathogen at a time. Fungi and oomycetes are among plant disease's most prevalent and damaging causal agents. With the increasing ability to distinguish individual species, thanks to new high-throughput molecular tools, numerous diseases once attributed to a single species are now recognized as being caused by complexes of fungal phytopathogens. How should we approach the study of these complexes? What tools and methodologies are needed to characterize them and decipher their functional interactions? How can we understand and master the drivers of these coinfections and their dynamics under field conditions? Here, we review the current literature on fungal disease complexes to define their commonalities and address some of the current challenges regarding the identification of preferential associations among fungal species indicative of a disease complex and its community dynamics and regulation. This review highlights that fungal species complexes are highly dynamic at geographic and temporal scales and that human actions contributed to the dissemination of new members of species complexes worldwide and to disequilibrium within species complexes, often resulting in more damaging diseases. This review also points to the generally insufficient (or lacking) knowledge of the diversity, dynamics, and functioning of fungal disease complexes, and the risks linked with inappropriate management strategies focusing on only one dominant member of the complex.

中文翻译：

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走出裂缝：研究真菌植物病害复合体的挑战和前景


植物病原体在引起疾病时通常不会单独起作用。由于感染过程受到寄生虫群落成员之间相互作用的影响，因此这个问题涉及疾病控制策略的效率，这些策略通常一次只管理一种微生物病原体。真菌和卵菌是植物病害最普遍、最具破坏性的致病因子。随着新的高通量分子工具的出现，区分单个物种的能力不断增强，许多曾经归因于单个物种的疾病现在被认为是由真菌植物病原体复合物引起的。我们应该如何研究这些复合物？需要哪些工具和方法来表征它们并破译它们的功能相互作用？我们如何理解和掌握这些双重感染的驱动因素及其在现场条件下的动态？在这里，我们回顾了当前关于真菌疾病复合体的文献，以定义它们的共性，并解决当前关于识别指示疾病复合体的真菌物种之间的优先关联及其群落动态和调节的一些挑战。本综述强调，真菌物种复合体在地理和时间尺度上具有高度动态性，人类活动导致物种复合体新成员在全球范围内传播以及物种复合体内部的不平衡，往往导致更具破坏性的疾病。该综述还指出，对真菌病害复合体的多样性、动态和功能的了解普遍不足（或缺乏），以及与仅关注复合体的一个主要成员的不适当管理策略相关的风险。