Comparative Genomics Reveals Evolutionary Traits, Mating Strategies, and Pathogenicity-Related Genes Variation of .

, as a major family of the largest class of kingdom fungi , encompasses phytopathogens, saprobes, and endophytes. Many members of this family are opportunistic phytopathogens with a wide host range and worldwide geographical distribution, and can infect many economically important plants, including food crops and raw material plants for biofuel production. To date, however, little is known about the family evolutionary characterization, mating strategies, and pathogenicity-related genes variation from a comparative genome perspective. Here, we conducted a large-scale whole-genome comparison of 271 , including 19 species in . The comparative genome analysis provided a clear classification of in and indicated that the evolution of lifestyle within underwent four major transitions from non-phytopathogenic to phytopathogenic. Mating strategies analysis demonstrated that at least 3 transitions were found within from heterothallism to homothallism. Additionally, pathogenicity-related genes contents in different genera varied greatly, indicative of genus-lineage expansion within . These findings shed new light on evolutionary traits, mating strategies and pathogenicity-related genes variation of .