# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/plant-pathogens-and-fungal-diseases/2026*

## What topics and trends defined most-cited Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases research in the Class of 2026?

Ascomycota, convolutional neural networks, and Basidiomycota anchor the Class of 2026 plant-pathogen cohort, alongside dermatophytosis, Trichophyton indotineae, and azole resistance. From Class of 2025 to 2026, fungal taxonomy and antifungal resistance rose sharply while deep-learning and data-augmentation themes receded among top-cited work.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Field | Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases |
| Cohort label | Class of 2026 (2024 publications) |
| Papers analyzed | 11,441 |
| Papers ranked | 20 |
| Top topics in ranked papers | Ascomycota, convolutional neural network, Basidiomycota, dermatophytosis, Trichophyton indotineae |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 30–75 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved Jul 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | Fusaric acid mediates the assembly of disease-suppressive rhizosphere microbiota via induced shifts in plant root exudates | Xue Jin, Huiting Jia, Lingyi Ran, Fengzhi Wu, Junjie Liu, Klaus Schlaeppi, Francisco Dini-Andreote, Zhong Wei, Xingang Zhou | Zhong Wei, Xingang Zhou | Northeast Agricultural University, China | Nature Communications | 75 | 10.1038/s41467-024-49218-9 |
| 2 | Phylogenomics, divergence times and notes of orders in Basidiomycota | Mao-Qiang He, Bin Cao, Fei Liu, Teun Boekhout, Teodor T. Denchev, Nathan Schoutteten, Cvetomir M. Denchev, Martin Kemler, Sergio P. Gorjón, Dominik Begerow, Ricardo Valenzuela, Naveed Davoodian, Tuula Niskanen, Alfredo Vizzini, Scott A. Redhead, Virginia Ramírez-Cruz, Viktor Papp, В. А. Дудка, Arun Kumar Dutta, Ricardo García-Sandoval, Xinzhan Liu, Teeratas Kijpornyongpan, Anton Savchenko, Leho Tedersoo, Bart Theelen, Larissa Trierveiler‐Pereira, Fang Wu, Juan Carlos Zamora, Xiang‐Yu Zeng, Li‐Wei Zhou, Shi‐Liang Liu, Masoomeh Ghobad‐Nejhad, Admir José Giachini, Guojie Li, Makoto Kakishima, Ibai Olariaga, Danny Haelewaters, Bobby P. Sulistyo, Junta Sugiyama, Sten Svantesson, Andrey Yurkov, Pablo Alvarado, Vladimír Antonín, André Felipe da Silva, Irina S. Druzhinina, Tatiana Baptista Gibertoni, Laura Guzmán‐Dávalos, Alfredo Justo, Samantha C. Karunarathna, Mahesh C. A. Galappaththi, Merje Toome‐Heller, Tsuyoshi Hosoya, Kare Liimatainen, Rodrigo Márquez-Sanz, Armin Mešić, Jean-Marc Moncalvo, László G. Nagy, Torda Varga, Takamichi Orihara, Tania Raymundo, Isabel Salcedo, Alexandre G. S. Silva-Filho, Zdenko Tkalčec, Felipe Wartchow, Chang-Lin Zhao, Tolgor Bau, Milay Cabarroi-Hernández, Alonso Cortés-Pérez, Cony Decock, R. D. Lange, Michael Weiß, Nelson Menolli, R. Henrik Nilsson, Yu-Guang Fan, Annemieke Verbeken, Yusufjon Gafforov, Angelina de Meiras-Ottoni, Renato Lúcio Mendes Alvarenga, Nian-Kai Zeng, Qi Wu, Kevin D. Hyde, Paul M. Kirk, Rui-Lin Zhao | Mao-Qiang He | Sichuan Agricultural University, China | Fungal Diversity | 55 | 10.1007/s13225-024-00535-w |
| 3 | Phylogenomic analysis of the <i>Candida auris- Candida haemuli</i> clade and related taxa in the <i>Metschnikowiaceae,</i> and proposal of thirteen new genera, fifty-five new combinations and nine new species | F Liu, Z-D Hu, X-M Zhao, W-N Zhao, Z-X Feng, A Yurkov, S Alwasel, T Boekhout, K Bensch, F-L Hui, F-Y Bai, Q-M Wang | F Liu | Hebei University, China | Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi | 50 | 10.3767/persoonia.2024.52.02 |
| 4 | Fungal diversity notes 1717–1817: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions on genera and species of fungal taxa | Shi‐Liang Liu, Xuewei Wang, Guojie Li, Chun-Ying Deng, Walter Rossi, Marco Leonardi, Kare Liimatainen, Tapio Kekki, Tuula Niskanen, Matthew E. Smith, Joe Ammirati, Dimitar Bojantchev, Mohamed A. Abdel‐Wahab, Ming Zhang, Enjing Tian, Yong‐Zhong Lu, Jingyi Zhang, Jian Ma, Arun Kumar Dutta, Krishnendu Acharya, Tian‐Ye Du, Jize Xu, Ji Seon Kim, Young Woon Lim, Alice Gerlach, Nian-Kai Zeng, Yun-Xiao Han, Parisa Razaghi, Mubashar Raza, Lei Cai, Mark S. Calabon, E.B. Gareth Jones, Rituparna Saha, T. K. Arun Kumar, K Krishnapriya, Anjitha Thomas, Malarvizhi Kaliyaperumal, Kezhocuyi Kezo, Sugantha Gunaseelan, Sanjay K. Singh, Paras Nath Singh, Ajay C. Lagashetti, Kadambari Subhash Pawar, Shu-Hua Jiang, Chao Zhang, Huang Zhang, Yun Qing, Tolgor Bau, Xing-Can Peng, Ting‐Chi Wen, Natalia A. Ramírez, Nicolás Niveiro, Meixiang Li, Zhu L. Yang, Gang Wu, Entaj Tarafder, Danushka S. Tennakoon, Chang-Hsin Kuo, Tatiane da Silva, Cristina Maria de Souza‐Motta, Jadson Diogo Pereira Bezerra, Gang He, Xiao-Hong Ji, Nakarin Suwannarach, Jaturong Kumla, Saisamorn Lumyong, Nopparat Wannathes, Shiwali Rana, Kevin D. Hyde, Li‐Wei Zhou | Shi‐Liang Liu | Chinese Academy of Sciences, China | Fungal Diversity | 50 | 10.1007/s13225-023-00529-0 |
| 5 | A re-evaluation of Diaporthe: refining the boundaries of species and species complexes | Asha J. Dissanayake, Jin-Tao Zhu, Yaya Chen, Sajeewa S. N. Maharachchikumbura, Kevin D. Hyde, Jian‐Kui Liu | Jian‐Kui Liu | University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China | Fungal Diversity | 47 | 10.1007/s13225-024-00538-7 |
| 6 | Aspergillus cvjetkovicii protects against phytopathogens through interspecies chemical signalling in the phyllosphere | Xiaoyan Fan, Haruna Matsumoto, Haorong Xu, Hongda Fang, Qianqian Pan, Tianxing Lv, Chengfang Zhan, Xiaoxiao Feng, Xiaoyu Liu, Danrui Su, Mengyuan Fan, Zhonghua Ma, Gabriele Berg, Shaojia Li, Tomislav Cernava, Mengcen Wang | Mengcen Wang | Zhejiang University, China | Nature Microbiology | 43 | 10.1038/s41564-024-01781-z |
| 7 | Elevated mutation rates in multi-azole resistant Aspergillus fumigatus drive rapid evolution of antifungal resistance | Michael J Bottery, Norman van Rhijn, Harry Chown, Johanna L Rhodes, Brandi N Celia-Sanchez, Marin T Brewer, Michelle Momany, Matthew C Fisher, Christopher G Knight, Michael J Bromley | Michael Bottery, Michael Bromley | University of Manchester, United Kingdom | Nature Communications | 38 | 10.1038/s41467-024-54568-5 |
| 8 | Detecting fungi-affected multi-crop disease on heterogeneous region dataset using modified ResNeXt approach | Nidhi Upadhyay, Neeraj Gupta | Nidhi Upadhyay | GLA University, India | Environmental Monitoring and Assessment | 37 | 10.1007/s10661-024-12790-0 |
| 9 | Cucumber Downy Mildew Disease Prediction Using a CNN-LSTM Approach | Yafei Wang, Tiezhu Li, Tianhua Chen, Xiaodong Zhang, Mohamed Farag Taha, Ning Yang, Hanping Mao, Qiang Shi | Hanping Mao | Jiangsu Changdian Technology Co., Ltd., China | Agriculture | 36 | 10.3390/agriculture14071155 |
| 10 | Polypore funga and species diversity in tropical forest ecosystems of Africa, America and Asia, and a comparison with temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere | Heng Zhao, Ying-Da Wu, Zhirong Yang, Honggao Liu, Fang Wu, Yu‐Cheng Dai, Yuan Yuan | Yuan Yuan | Beijing Forestry University, China | Forest Ecosystems | 35 | 10.1016/j.fecs.2024.100200 |
| 11 | Antifungal activity of copper oxide nanoparticles derived from Zizyphus spina leaf extract against Fusarium root rot disease in tomato plants | Sozan E El-Abeid, Mohamed A Mosa, Mohamed A M El-Tabakh, Ahmed M Saleh, Mohamed A El-Khateeb, Maha S A Haridy | Mohamed A. El‐Khateeb | Agricultural Research Center, Egypt | Journal of Nanobiotechnology | 34 | 10.1186/s12951-023-02281-8 |
| 12 | CNN Models Approaches for Robust Classification of Apple Diseases | İsmail Kunduracıoğlu | İsmail Kunduracıoğlu | Igdir University, Turkey | Computer and decision making. | 34 | 10.59543/comdem.v1i.10957 |
| 13 | Potential Sexual Transmission of Antifungal-Resistant <i>Trichophyton indotineae</i> | Stephanie Spivack, Jeremy A W Gold, Shawn R Lockhart, Priyanka Anand, Laura A S Quilter, Dallas J Smith, Briana Bowen, Jane M Gould, Ahmed Eltokhy, Ahmed Gamal, Mauricio Retuerto, Thomas S McCormick, Mahmoud A Ghannoum | Mahmoud A. Ghannoum | Temple University Hospital, United States | Emerging infectious diseases | 33 | 10.3201/eid3004.240115 |
| 14 | Inducing novel endosymbioses by implanting bacteria in fungi | Gabriel H Giger, Chantal Ernst, Ingrid Richter, Thomas Gassler, Christopher M Field, Anna Sintsova, Patrick Kiefer, Christoph G Gäbelein, Orane Guillaume-Gentil, Kirstin Scherlach, Miriam Bortfeld-Miller, Tomaso Zambelli, Shinichi Sunagawa, Markus Künzler, Christian Hertweck, Julia A Vorholt | Julia A. Vorholt | ETH Zurich, Switzerland | Nature | 33 | 10.1038/s41586-024-08010-x |
| 15 | Comparative metabolome and transcriptome analyses reveal the role of MeJA in improving postharvest disease resistance and maintaining the quality of Rosa roxburghii fruit | Juan Ma, Shuang Liu, Jing Zeng, Yiwen Zhang, Chang Wei, Zhao Meng, Yujia Zhou, Wen’e Zhang, Xiaochun Ding, Xuejun Pan, Xuewu Duan | Xiaochun Ding, Xuejun Pan | Guizhou University, China | Postharvest Biology and Technology | 32 | 10.1016/j.postharvbio.2024.113314 |
| 16 | Fungal diversity notes 1818–1918: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions on genera and species of fungi | Ishara S. Manawasinghe, Kevin D. Hyde, Dhanushka N. Wanasinghe, Samantha C. Karunarathna, Sajeewa S. N. Maharachchikumbura, Milan C. Samarakoon, Hermann Voglmayr, Ka-Lai Pang, Michael Chiang, E. B. Gareth Jones, Ramesh K. Saxena, Arun Kumar, Kunhiraman C. Rajeshkumar, Laura Selbmann, Claudia Coleine, Yuwei Hu, A. Martyn Ainsworth, Kare Liimatainen, Tuula Niskanen, Anna B. Ralaiveloarisoa, Elangovan Arumugam, Kezhocuyi Kezo, Malarvizhi Kaliyaperumal, Sugantha Gunaseelan, Asha J. Dissanayake, Abdul Nasir Khalid, Achala J. Gajanayake, Adam Flakus, Alireza Armand, André Aptroot, Andre Rodrigues, Andrei Tsurykau, Ángela López-Villalba, Antônio Roberto Gomes de Farias, Antonio Sánchez, Aristóteles Goés‐Neto, Bruno Tomio Goto, Carlos Alberto Fragoso de Souza, Charuwan Chuaseeharonnachai, Chuan-Gen Lin, Cui-Jin-Yi Li, Cvetomir M. Denchev, Daniel Guerra-Mateo, Danushka S. Tennakoon, De-Ping Wei, Dominik Begerow, Eduardo Alves, Elisandro Ricardo Drechsler‐Santos, Enayra Silva Sousa, Érika Valente de Medeiros, Ewald Langer, Zhang Fa, Francisco Adriano de Souza, Franco Magurno, Gabriel Ginane Barreto, Gabriel Moreno, Gajanan Mane, Genivaldo Alves-Silva, Gladstone Alves da Silva, Guiyang Xia, H. F. Shen, Heng Gui, Indunil C. Senanayake, Janet Jennifer Luangsa-ard, Jia-Wei Liu, Jian‐Kui Liu, Jian Ma, Jieying Lin, José Evando Aguiar Beserra, J. Cano, Josepa Gené, Kuniyil Harikrishnan, Li Lu, Lidiane Alves dos Santos, Lijian Xu, Lorena Tigre Lacerda, Luís Fernando Pascholati Gusmão, Marcela E. S. Cáceres, Marcos Paz Saraiva Câmara, Maria Beatriz Barbosa de Barros-Barreto, Mark S. Calabon, Martin Kukwa, Martin Kemler, Maruzanete Pereira de Melo, Masoomeh Ghobad‐Nejhad, Mei Luo, Mengmeng Ding, Mingkwan Doilom, Monthien Phonemany, Muhammad Usman, Naritsada Thongklang, Nattawut Boonyuen, Nikhil Ashtekar, Nuwan D. Kularathnage, Onden P. Sruthi, Papichaya Kwantong, Parayelil A. Ansil, Pepijn W. Kooij, Qi Zhao, Rafael Ferreira Alfenas | Ishara S. Manawasinghe | Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, China | Fungal Diversity | 32 | 10.1007/s13225-024-00541-y |
| 17 | Trichoderma afroharzianum TRI07 metabolites inhibit Alternaria alternata growth and induce tomato defense-related enzymes | Bassant Philip, Said I Behiry, Mohamed Z M Salem, Mostafa A Amer, Ibrahim A El-Samra, Ahmed Abdelkhalek, Ahmed Heflish | Bassant Philip, Said I. Behiry, Mohamed Z. M. Salem | Alexandria University, Egypt | Scientific Reports | 31 | 10.1038/s41598-024-52301-2 |
| 18 | MCDCNet: Multi-scale constrained deformable convolution network for apple leaf disease detection | Bin Liu, Xulei Huang, Leiming Sun, Xing Wei, Zeyu Ji, Haixi Zhang | Haixi Zhang | Northwest A&F University, China | Computers and Electronics in Agriculture | 31 | 10.1016/j.compag.2024.109028 |
| 19 | Enhanced surface colonisation and competition during bacterial adaptation to a fungus | Anne Richter, Felix Blei, Guohai Hu, Jan W Schwitalla, Carlos N Lozano-Andrade, Jiyu Xie, Scott A Jarmusch, Mario Wibowo, Bodil Kjeldgaard, Surabhi Surabhi, Xinming Xu, Theresa Jautzus, Christopher B W Phippen, Olaf Tyc, Mark Arentshorst, Yue Wang, Paolina Garbeva, Thomas Ostenfeld Larsen, Arthur F J Ram, Cees A M van den Hondel, Gergely Maróti, Ákos T Kovács | Ákos T. Kovács | Technical University of Denmark, Denmark | Nature Communications | 31 | 10.1038/s41467-024-48812-1 |
| 20 | Drought increases Norway spruce susceptibility to the Eurasian spruce bark beetle and its associated fungi | Sigrid Netherer, Linda Lehmanski, Albert Bachlehner, Sabine Rosner, Tadeja Savi, Axel Schmidt, Jianbei Huang, Maria Rosa Paiva, Eduardo Mateus, Henrik Hartmann, Jonathan Gershenzon | Sigrid Netherer | University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria | New Phytologist | 30 | 10.1111/nph.19635 |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

The informative word cloud across the 50 highest 18-month-cited plant pathogens and fungal diseases papers reveals a field split between fungal systematics and clinical mycology on one side and computer-vision disease diagnostics on the other. Ascomycota and convolutional neural network tie as the most frequently mentioned informative topics, each appearing in 5 of 50 papers (normalized frequency 0.10). A second tier clusters major fungal phyla and dermatophyte themes—Basidiomycota, dermatophytosis, and Trichophyton indotineae each appear in 4 papers (0.08)—alongside species delimitation, multigene phylogeny, biological control, azole resistance, and terbinafine resistance (3 papers each, 0.06). Larger type further highlights Phylogenomics, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, Candida auris, ResNet-50, LSTM, and transfer learning, signaling that influential 2024 publications combine taxonomic revision and antifungal-resistance surveillance with deep-learning pipelines for leaf and pathogen image classification. Biocontrol agents, volatile organic compounds, and plant growth promotion appear alongside DNA barcoding and whole-genome sequencing, suggesting high-impact work spans molecular identification, biocontrol discovery, and AI-assisted plant disease diagnosis rather than a single methodological lane.

*Leading research themes*

### How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

Comparing normalized concept frequencies between the Class of 2025 (2023 publications) and Class of 2026 (2024 publications) cohorts shows a rebalancing of early-high-impact plant pathogen and fungal disease research away from deep-learning dominance toward fungal taxonomy, clinical mycology, and biocontrol. Ascomycota exhibited the largest gain among leading themes (+0.08 normalized frequency; 1 versus 5 papers), followed by Basidiomycota and dermatophytosis (+0.06 each; 1 versus 4). Species delimitation and azole resistance each climbed +0.06 (from 0 to 3 papers), while Trichophyton indotineae rose +0.04 (2 versus 4) and multigene phylogeny and biological control each gained +0.04 (1 versus 3). The topic evolution card underscores that Class of 2026 bars extend furthest for Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, dermatophytosis, Trichophyton indotineae, azole resistance, species delimitation, and terbinafine resistance—topics aligned with phylogenetic revision, dermatophyte outbreaks, and antifungal resistance monitoring. Conversely, convolutional neural network (−0.20; 0.30 to 0.10) and data augmentation (−0.06; 0.12 to 0.06) receded sharply among the most-cited concept set, alongside modest declines in ResNet-50 (−0.04) and biocontrol agents (−0.02). Together, these shifts suggest that the most-cited 2024 papers emphasize fungal classification, drug-resistant dermatophytes, and biological control over the computer-vision-heavy profile that dominated the prior cohort.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## Cite this ranking

```
Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/plant-pathogens-and-fungal-diseases/2026. Accessed 2026-07-14.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459
```