The fungal core effector Pep1 is conserved across smuts of dicots and monocots. Issue 3 (27th January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hemetsberger, Christoph; Mueller, André N.; Matei, Alexandra; Herrberger, Christian; Hensel, Götz; Kumlehn, Jochen; Mishra, Bagdevi; Sharma, Rahul; Thines, Marco; Hückelhoven, Ralph; Doehlemann, Gunther
• Is Part Of: New phytologist. Volume 206:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 1116
• Page End: 1126
• Publication Date: 2015-01-27
• Subjects: Botany -- Periodicals; 580
• DOI: 10.1111/nph.13304
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0028-646X

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="nph13304-abs-0001"> <title>Summary</title> <p> <list id="nph13304-list-0001" list-type="bullet"> <list-item> <p>The secreted fungal effector Pep1 is essential for penetration of the host epidermis and establishment of biotrophy in the <italic>Ustilago maydis</italic>–maize pathosystem. Previously, Pep1 was found to be an inhibitor of apoplastic plant peroxidases, which suppresses the oxidative burst, a primary immune response of the host plant and enables fungal colonization.</p> </list-item> <list-item> <p>To investigate the conservation of Pep1 in other pathogens, genomes of related smut species were screened for <italic>pep1</italic> orthologues. Pep1 proteins were produced in <italic>Escherichia coli</italic> for functional assays. The biological function of Pep1 was tested by heterologous expression in <italic>U. maydis</italic> and <italic>Hordeum vulgare</italic>.</p> </list-item> <list-item> <p>Pep1 orthologues revealed a remarkable degree of sequence conservation, indicating that this effector might play a fundamental role in virulence of biotrophic smut fungi. Pep1 function and its role in virulence are conserved in different pathogenic fungi, even across the monocot–dicot border of host plants.</p> </list-item> <list-item> <p>The findings described in this study classify Pep1 as a phylogenetically conserved fungal core effector. Furthermore, we documented the influence of Pep1 on the disease caused by <italic>Blumeria graminis</italic> f. sp. <italic>hordei</italic> which is a non‐smut‐related pathosystem.</p> </list-item> </list> </p> </abstract>