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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Washington, D.C. » National Arboretum » Floral and Nursery Plants Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #347694
Title: Identification of candidate effector genes of Pratylenchus penetrans

Author
item VIEIRA, PAULO - Virginia Tech
item MAYER, THOMAS - Iowa State University
item EVES-VAN DEN AKKER, SEBASTIAN - University Of Dundee
item HOWE, DANA - Oregon State University
item ZASADA, INGA - Oregon State University
item BAUM, THOMAS - Iowa State University
item EISENBACK, JONATHAN - Virginia Tech
item Kamo, Kathryn

Submitted to: Molecular Plant Pathology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/7/2018
Publication Date: 2/9/2018
Citation: Vieira, P., Mayer, T., Eves-Van Den Akker, S., Howe, D., Zasada, I., Baum, T., Eisenback, J.D., Kamo, K.K. 2018. Identification of candidate effector genes of Pratylenchus penetrans. Molecular Plant Pathology. https://doi.org/10.1111/mpp.12666.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mpp.12666

Interpretive Summary: Root lesion nematodes (Pratylenchus penetrans) are ranked third for the amount of economic damage that they cause to many crops including wheat, potatoes, soybeans and horticultural crops such as apples, lilies, and roses. They are migratory nematodes that are very difficult to control, and many of the pesticides and fumigants used for their control are expected to be banned in the future. An international research team identified proteins that are secreted by the nematode during infection that play a role in parasitism. These effector proteins were expressed during the early stage of plant infection. Silencing these effector proteins may be a way to inhibit parasitism by P. penetrans and contribute to controlling them.

Technical Abstract: Pratylenchus penetrans is considered one of the most important species among root lesion nematodes (RLN) due to the detrimental and economic impact that it causes in a wide range of crops. Similar to other plant-pathogens, P. penetrans harbors a significant number of predicted secreted proteins that play key roles during parasitism. Herein we combine spatially and temporally resolved next-generation sequencing datasets of P. penetrans to select a list of candidate genes aimed at the identification of a panel of effector genes for this species. We determined the spatial expression of transcripts of 22 candidate effectors within the esophageal glands of P. penetrans by in situ hybridization. These comprised homologues of known effectors of other plant-parasitic nematodes with diverse putative functions, as well as novel pioneer effectors specific to RLN. It is noteworthy that five of the pioneer effectors encode extremely proline-rich proteins. We then combined in situ localization of effectors with available genomic data to identify a non-coding motif that is enriched promoter regions of a subset of P. penetrans effectors, and thus a putative hallmark of spatial expression. A selected subset of candidate effectors was shown using RT-qPCR to be actively expressed during the early steps of plant infection. Our current results provide the most comprehensive panel of effector genes found for RLN. Considering the damage caused by P. penetrans, this information provides valuable data to elucidate the pathogenicity basis of this broad host-nematode and offers useful suggestions regarding the potential use of RLN-specific target effector genes to control this important pathogen.