Effector evolution in plant pathogens

With the human population projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, the looming challenge of feeding the rapidly growing population is threatened by plant pathogens, which cause significant losses in crop yield each year. While battling diseases is essential for sustainable agriculture and global food security, developing durable resistance requires a deep understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie the dynamic co-evolution between plants and pathogens.
A hallmark of host-pathogen arms race is the accelerated evolution of pathogen effectors. Plants have evolved a sophisticated immune system that protects them from the vast majority of potential pathogens in the surrounding environment. However, successful pathogens produce effector proteins to defeat host immunity and create a suitable environment for disease development. Understanding how effectors render plants susceptible and elucidating the mechanisms utilized by pathogens to facilitate rapid evolution in their effector repertoire will offer important insight into the fundamental principles of pathogenesis. This knowledge is essential in establishing sustainable disease control strategies.
Focusing on the devastating plant pathogen Phytophthora, this project will investigate how modular architecture of effector proteins facilitate functional diversification in an effector repertoire through which new activities of host manipulation could arise. Innovative proteomic approaches in combination with genetics, biochemistry, bioinformatics, molecular biology, and protein structure analyses will be employed to advance a fundamental understanding of this important aspect of host-pathogen co-evolution.