This Special Issue of European Journal of Plant Pathology contains selected Keynote Papers presented at the 1st International Conference “Wild Plant Pathosystems”, held in July 2–5, 2013 at Olomouc (Czech Republic), a meeting that focussed on a wide range of theoretical and methodological topics related to wild plant pathosystems: ecological and genetic views of coevolution, phylogenetics and speciation; general plantpathogen interactions; ecological genomics of hostpathogen interactions; the development of a common conceptual framework for antagonistic interactions; interactions between pathogens and plant community structure; epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics across the agro-ecological interface; trends in emerging and invasive pathogens; wild crop progenitors and sources of resistance; and plant breeding applications. This broad area is a vibrant and fast developing area of plant biology and pathology which has been mostly neglected in various botanical, ecological and plant pathology meetings. The 14 papers in this volume cover this wide range of topics and have been arranged according to the main subject matter, i.e. from the theoretical background to the practical applications in resistance breeding and disease control. As such this volume represents the first comprehensive treatment of this topic in a plant pathology-focused scientific journal. From this conference will be also published a Special Issue of Plant Protection Science (published by Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences), in which are summarized nine short oral contributions or posters from this conference. The full Programme and Proceedings (with Abstracts are already available (Lebeda, A., Burdon, J.J. (Ed.): Wild Plant Pathosystems. Czech Society for Plant Pathology and Palacký University, Olomouc (Czech Republic), 2013, 128 pp. (ISBN 97880-903545-1-7)). We hope that this Special Issue of EJPP will be of use to students, academics and researchers in plant pathology, taxonomy, plant biology and ecology, plant resistance breeding and disease control, as well as to others involved in the agricultural and horticultural advisory services and industry. Eur J Plant Pathol (2014) 138:415 DOI 10.1007/s10658-013-0308-2