Abstract
Fungal pathogens deploy a set of molecules (proteins, specialized metabolites, and sRNAs), so-called effectors, to aid the infection process. In comparison to other plant pathogens, smut fungi have small genomes and secretomes of 20 Mb and around 500 proteins, respectively. Previous comparative genomic studies have shown that many secreted effector proteins without known domains, i.e., novel, are conserved only in the Ustilaginaceae family. By analyzing the secretomes of 11 species within Ustilaginaceae, we identified 53 core homologous groups commonly present in this lineage. By collecting existing mutants and generating additional ones, we gathered 44 Ustilago maydis strains lacking single core effectors as well as 9 strains containing multiple deletions of core effector gene families. Pathogenicity assays revealed that 20 of these 53 mutant strains were affected in virulence. Among the 33 mutants that had no obvious phenotypic changes, 13 carried additional, sequence-divergent, structurally similar paralogs. We report a virulence contribution of seven previously uncharacterized single core effectors and of one effector family. Our results help to prioritize effectors for understanding U. maydis virulence and provide genetic resources for further characterization. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Comparative secretome analysis of 11 Ustilaginaceae species identified 53 core homologous groups.
- Taxon
- Ustilago maydis
Mycosarcoma maydist0 - Outcome
- core homologous groupse0
- Value
- 53e0
- Qualifier
- commonly present in this lineagee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Contribute to the Virulence ofUstilago maydis”
e0“By analyzing the secretomes of 11 species within Ustilaginaceae, we identified 53 core homologous groups commonly present in this lineage”
Claim · model-written summary
Of 53 mutant strains lacking core effectors, 20 were affected in virulence.
- Taxon
- Ustilago maydisMycosarcoma maydist0
- Material
- mutant strainse1
- Outcome
- affected in virulencee1
- Value
- 20 of these 53e1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Contribute to the Virulence ofUstilago maydis”
e1“Pathogenicity assays revealed that 20 of these 53 mutant strains were affected in virulence”
Claim · model-written summary
Among 33 mutants with no obvious phenotypic change, 13 carried additional sequence-divergent paralogs.
- Taxon
- Ustilago maydisMycosarcoma maydist0
- Outcome
- paralogse2
- Value
- 13e2
- Qualifier
- 33 mutants that had no obvious phenotypic changese2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Contribute to the Virulence ofUstilago maydis”
e2“Among the 33 mutants that had no obvious phenotypic changes, 13 carried additional, sequence-divergent, structurally similar paralogs”
Claim · model-written summary
Seven previously uncharacterized single core effectors contribute to virulence of Ustilago maydis.
- Taxon
- Ustilago maydisMycosarcoma maydist0
- Gene
- previously uncharacterized single core effectorse3
- Outcome
- virulence contributione3
- Value
- sevene3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Contribute to the Virulence ofUstilago maydis”
e3“We report a virulence contribution of seven previously uncharacterized single core effectors and of one effector family”
Claim · model-written summary
One conserved effector family contributes to virulence of Ustilago maydis.
- Taxon
- Ustilago maydisMycosarcoma maydist0
- Gene
- effector familye3
- Outcome
- virulence contributione3
- Value
- onee3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Contribute to the Virulence ofUstilago maydis”
e3“We report a virulence contribution of seven previously uncharacterized single core effectors and of one effector family”