A striking outcome from the analysis of the patterns of M. lini gene expression is that the six known Avr genes, AvrM (avrM), AvrM14, AvrL2, AvrL567, AvrP123 (AvrP) and AvrP4, all occur in the same cluster (S3 Fig, Cluster 3), with similar patterns of early expression during infection and very low expression in germinating spores (Figs 1 and 4). Here, AVP is linked to infection.