Botrytis cinerea is a phytogenic fungus which does not exhibit high host specificity. Under favorable climatic and physiologic conditions, it is capable of growing on all species of dicotyledons.
It is considered to be a good model for the study of the common arsenal of infectious mechanisms present in all phytopathogenic fungi.
It grows on the vine as a gray rot, which causes major damage to crops each year in France, in which hundreds of millions of francs are spent to combat this pathogenic agent. It is also the cause of the famous noble rot which imparts a characteristic flavor to Sauterne wines.

The cDNA library to be analyzed within the framework of this project was created using a Botrytis cinerea strain which was grown under conditions of nitrogen deprivation, which is the normal situation for B. cinerea during its development on its host plant. The library was produced in an oriented sense, in the pBSII vector.