The Role of Virulence Factors in the Pathogenicity of Colletotrichum sp.

The Colletotrichum genus has been considered as one of the top 10 fungal pathogens in molecular plant pathology based on their scientific and agrobiological importance. Although the genus contains species with different lifestyles, most of the Colletotrichum sp. are known by their hemibiotrophic strategy of infection/invasion causing anthracnose disease in many economically important crops. Hemibiotrophy includes two sequential stages of infection, biotrophy and necrotrophy, in a series of steps that involve the participation of different virulence factors. In this review, we present the current status of the knowledge of such factors reported in this genus and a list of related genes identified in Colletotrichum sp. genomes. Keywords: Biotrophy, Colletotrichum sp, hemibiotrophy, infection/invasion, necrotrophy, virulence factors.