Abstract
BackgroundOomycetes are a group of filamentous eukaryotic microorganisms that have colonized all terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems, and they include prominent plant pathogens. The Aphanomyces genus is unique in its ability to infect both plant and animal species, and as such exemplifies oomycete versatility in adapting to different hosts and environments. Dissecting the underpinnings of oomycete diversity provides insights into their specificity and pathogenic mechanisms.ResultsBy carrying out genomic analyses of the plant pathogen A. euteiches and the crustacean pathogen A. astaci, we show that host specialization is correlated with specialized secretomes that are adapted to the deconstruction of the plant cell wall in A. euteiches and protein degradation in A. astaci. The A. euteiches genome is characterized by a large repertoire of small secreted protein (SSP)-encoding genes that are highly induced during plant infection, and are not detected in other oomycetes. Functional analysis revealed an SSP from A. euteiches containing a predicted nuclear-localization signal which shuttles to the plant nucleus and increases plant susceptibility to infection.ConclusionCollectively, our results show that Aphanomyces host adaptation is associated with evolution of specialized secretomes and identify SSPs as a new class of putative oomycete effectors.
Highlights
Oomycetes are a group of filamentous eukaryotic microorganisms that have colonized all terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems, and they include prominent plant pathogens
The estimated genome size of A. euteiches is consistent with the size range of most previously sequenced oomycete genomes except P. infestans (240 Mb) [32] and close to the assembled S. parasitica fish pathogen genome (63 Mb) [31]
Most of the gene space was covered as 83.1% complete, and a 3.8% partial model of conserved fungal genes was identified within the genome of A. euteiches
Summary
Oomycetes are a group of filamentous eukaryotic microorganisms that have colonized all terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems, and they include prominent plant pathogens. Oomycetes are filamentous eukaryotes that have colonized all terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems [1]. Oomycete pathogenicity mainly relies on large repertoires of secreted proteins, known as effectors. Gaulin et al BMC Biology (2018) 16:43 effector function [8, 9] Besides their role in pathogenicity, numerous RxLR proteins are detected by host plants able to produce cognate resistance proteins to trigger resistance [10, 11]. Rapid evolution of RxLR effectors allows the pathogen to counteract this surveillance system
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