Digest: Evolutionary dynamics of specialization of a fungal pathogen.

Pathogen specialization may not always arise due to an adaptive trade‐off between infecting one or many species. Bruns et al. characterized the potential host range of four lineages of the fungal pathogen Microbotryum on three Dianthus species. They found that both generalists and specialists co‐occurred in nature and no clear fitness benefit is found for either. They suggested that specialization may be related to the specific geographic distribution of these plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]