Abstract Climate change-enforced drought stress conditions and diseases caused by pathogens often co-occur and represent one of the greatest challenges in plant science. Wilt pathogens that colonize water-conducting plant tissues can aggravate the problem and affect a wide range of agricultural crops. However, whilst fungal infections with the vascular pathogen Verticillium dahliae are typically associated with wilt symptoms due to occlusion of xylem tissues, the related V.