Tropical and temperate pathosystems differ in structure and behavior. In this article, both pathosystems are characterized and the risk of origin and selection of fungicide resistance is discussed for both situations. The differential characteristics found relevant were: survival I (between crop seasons); survival II (between cycles of the pathogen); apparent infection rate; ingress and/or survival of resistant mutants; clockwise manner of infection; persistence of resistant mutants; fitness of resistant mutants. It is concluded that the tropical pathosystem does not have a higher risk of selecting resistant mutants. However, in some cases, a higher number of resistant mutants can be originated in tropical pathosystems.
