Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom - TAIR

Using pathogen effectors to understand host
resistance mechanisms
Plant pathogens use small molecules and also proteins to render their hosts
susceptible. Many bacteria and other pathogens use a specialized secretion
system to deliver proteins into host cells that interfere with host defence. We
have taken advantage of the bacterial type III secretion system (T3SS) to
investigate effectors from filamentous pathogens such as oomycetes. We are
using T3SS delivery of oomycete effectors from Pseudomonas sp to investigate
the effector complement of the downy mildew pathogen Hyaloperonospora
parasitica (Hpa). I will report recent data on Hpa effector functions and on the use
of the Solexa/Illumina sequencing instrument to advance our understanding of
Hpa pathogenicity. We are using Illumina paired read sequencing and Velvet
software (Zerbino and Birney, Genome Research, 2008) to assemble sequences
of multiple races of another oomycete pathogen, Albugo candida, which is
particularly effective at shutting down host defence. The analysis of its effectors
is likely to provide very interesting new insights into host defence mechanisms.
In addition, we are using T3SS delivery of oomycete effectors to investigate the
molecular basis of pathogen/host specificity and non-host resistance. An update
on recent progress will be presented.
75
C24
Wednesday 14:00 - 14:30
Plant Defence
Jonathan D G Jones
Eric Kemen
Kee-hoon Sohn
Georgina Fabro
Jorge Badel
Sainsbury Lab
Norwich
UK