The Pleiades are a cluster of fungal effectors that inhibit host defenses.

Autor: Fernando Navarrete, Nenad Grujic, Alexandra Stirnberg, Indira Saado, David Aleksza, Michelle Gallei, Hazem Adi, André Alcântara, Mamoona Khan, Janos Bindics, Marco Trujillo, Armin Djamei
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: PLoS Pathogens, Vol 17, Iss 6, p e1009641 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1553-7366
1553-7374
DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009641
Popis: Biotrophic plant pathogens secrete effector proteins to manipulate the host physiology. Effectors suppress defenses and induce an environment favorable to disease development. Sequence-based prediction of effector function is impeded by their rapid evolution rate. In the maize pathogen Ustilago maydis, effector-coding genes frequently organize in clusters. Here we describe the functional characterization of the pleiades, a cluster of ten effector genes, by analyzing the micro- and macroscopic phenotype of the cluster deletion and expressing these proteins in planta. Deletion of the pleiades leads to strongly impaired virulence and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in infected tissue. Eight of the Pleiades suppress the production of ROS upon perception of pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Although functionally redundant, the Pleiades target different host components. The paralogs Taygeta1 and Merope1 suppress ROS production in either the cytoplasm or nucleus, respectively. Merope1 targets and promotes the auto-ubiquitination activity of RFI2, a conserved family of E3 ligases that regulates the production of PAMP-triggered ROS burst in plants.
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