Recent developments of plant pathogen effectors

Abstract

In order to successfully invade and propagate in host plants, pathogens secrete effectors as invasive weapons. There are some differences and similarities among effectors of different pathogens. The systematic identification of plant pathogen effectors and the deep knowledge of the molecular interaction between the effectors and disease resistance genes, could provide practical significance in plant pathology and disease resistance breeding research. With the continuous development of sequencing technology, plant genomics and transcriptomics are increasingly utilized in plant disease resistance research. These sequencing results can be used to identify candidate pathogenic genes as well as plant disease resistance genes, and that would provide important information to understand the interaction between pathogens and plants. In this review, the function and characterization of effectors were reviewed and compared as well as the identification methods, pathogenic functions and disease resistance of plants were highlighted based on the research progress of pathogen effectors in plants in recent years. The application of effector in plant disease resistance and its research prospects are further prospected.