show Abstracthide AbstractGenomic DNA from Mike Perlin at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. Though not directly an agricultural pest group, the <i>Microbotryum violaceum</i> complex, or anther smuts, is an exciting system for examination of the ecology and evolution of host/pathogen interactions in "wild" non-agricultural environments where host heterogeneity provides an important contrast to the heavily studied agricultural pathogens. <i>M. violaceum</i> also serves as a model for emerging infectious disease through host shifts, for studying the evolution of sexual systems and sex chromosomes, and for examining gene expression that may give clues to important genes involved in pathogenicity during infections.