Presence/absence polymorphism for alternative pathogenicity islands in Pseudomonas viridiflava, a pathogen of Arabidopsis.

ABSTRACT: The contribution of arms race dynamics to plant-pathogen coevolution has been called into question by the presence of balanced polymorphisms in resistance genes of Arabidopsis thaliana, but less is known about the pathogen side of the interaction. Here we investigate structural polymorphism in pathogenicity islands (PAIs) in Pseudomonas viridiflava, a prevalent bacterial pathogen of A. thaliana. PAIs encode the type III secretion system along with its effectors and are essential for pathogen recognition in plants. P. viridiflava harbors two structurally distinct and highly diverged PAI paralogs (T- and S-PAI) that are integrated in different chromosome locations in the P. viridiflava genome. Both PAIs are segregating as presence/absence polymorphisms such that only one PAI ([T-PAI, nablaS-

SUBMITTER: Araki H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1458668 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature