ABSTRACT
Necrotrophic pathogens cause major postharvest diseases in numerous agronomic and horticultural crops, thereby inflicting significant economic losses. This chapter focusses on the molecular aspects of the pathogenicity of necrotrophic fungi. The strategies to recognize the host and the signaling involved in this process, the penetration of the host cuticle and the cell wall, fungal nutrition and biosynthesis, and integrity of the fungal cell walls are the major topics covered in the present chapter. The current state of knowledge of the different -omic techniques, including genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics, of postharvest phytopathogenic fungi will also be presented.
