Effector genomics accelerates discovery and functional profiling of potato disease resistance and phytophthora infestans avirulence genes.

ABSTRACT: Potato is the world's fourth largest food crop yet it continues to endure late blight, a devastating disease caused by the Irish famine pathogen Phytophthora infestans. Breeding broad-spectrum disease resistance (R) genes into potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the best strategy for genetically managing late blight but current approaches are slow and inefficient. We used a repertoire of effector genes predicted computationally from the P. infestans genome to accelerate the identification, functional characterization, and cloning of potentially broad-spectrum R genes. An initial set of 54 effectors containing a signal peptide and a RXLR motif was profiled for activation of innate immunity (avirulence or Avr activity) on wild Solanum species and tentative Avr candidates were identified. The RXLR

SUBMITTER: Vleeshouwers VG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2483939 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature