4 c0004 Epidemiology and Evolution of Fungal Pathogens in Plants and Animals Pierre Gladieux 1 , Edmond J Byrnes III 2 , Gabriela Aguileta 1 , Matthew C Fisher 3 , Joseph Heitman 2 and Tatiana Giraud 1, * 1 Ecologie, Syste ´matique et Evolution, UMR 8079, Ba ˆtiment 360, Univ. Paris-Sud, F-91405 Orsay, France; UMR 8079, CNRS, F-91405 Orsay, France, 2 Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America, 3 Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, St. Mary’s Hospital, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK s0010 4.1 Introduction p0030 Although parasitism is one of the most common lifestyles among eukaryotes, popu- lation genetics on parasites lag far behind those on free-living organisms, probably because they are rarely conspicuous in the environment, do not possess the visible morphologic or behavioral variation used in the early studies of population genet- ics, and are less charismatic than the macrofauna. However, the advent of molecu- lar markers offers great tools for studying key processes of parasite biology, such as dispersal, mating systems, host adaptation, and patterns of speciation. Population genetics studies have also valuable practical applications, for instance for studying the evolution of drug resistance or new virulence. Another reason to study epidemi- ology and evolution in parasites is that they display a huge diversity of life cycles and lifestyles, thus providing great opportunity for comparative studies to test path- ogen-specific questions or general issues about evolution. Nevertheless, the field of parasitology has yet to attract more evolutionary biologists. This is especially true for fungal parasites, despite their importance in crop diseases, and even in animal and human diseases. Furthermore, despite their obvious common interests there are few connections so far between scientists working on fungal parasites versus other parasites. * E-mail: tatiana.giraud@u-psud.fr Tibayrenc-1 978-0-12-384890-1 00004 Genetics and Evolution of Infectious Diseases. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-384890-1.00004-2 r 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.