Host-Induced Gene Silencing in Barley Powdery Mildew Reveals a Class of Ribonuclease-Like Effectors

Date
2013-06-01
Authors
Nettleton, Dan
Pliego, Clara
Nowara, Daniele
Surana, Priyanka
Bonciani, Giulia
Gheroghe, Dana
Xu, Ruo
Surana, Priyanka
Whigham, Ehren
Nettleton, Dan
Bogdanove, Adam
Wise, Roger
Schweizer, Patrick
Bindschedler, Laurence
Spanu, Pietro
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Plant Pathology and Microbiology
Abstract

Obligate biotrophic pathogens of plants must circumvent or counteract defenses to guarantee accommodation inside the host. To do so, they secrete a variety of effectors that regulate host immunity and facilitate the establishment of pathogen feeding structures called haustoria. The barley powdery mildew fungus Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordeiproduces a large number of proteins predicted to be secreted from haustoria. Fifty of these Blumeria effector candidates (BEC) were screened by host-induced gene silencing (HIGS), and eight were identified that contribute to infection. One shows similarity to β-1,3 glucosyltransferases, one to metallo-proteases, and two to microbial secreted ribonucleases; the remainder have no similarity to proteins of known function. Transcript abundance of all eight BEC increases dramatically in the early stages of infection and establishment of haustoria, consistent with a role in that process. Complementation analysis using silencing-insensitive synthetic cDNAs demonstrated that the ribonuclease-like BEC 1011 and 1054 are bona fide effectors that function within the plant cell. BEC1011 specifically interferes with pathogen-induced host cell death. Both are part of a gene superfamily unique to the powdery mildew fungi. Structural modeling was consistent, with BEC1054 adopting a ribonuclease-like fold, a scaffold not previously associated with effector function.

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This article is from Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 26 (2013): 633, doi:10.1094/MPMI-01-13-0005-R.

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