Lso-HPE1, an Effector of 'Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum', Can Repress Plant Immune Response. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • 'Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum' is a plant pathogen affecting the families Solanaceae and Apiaceae in different parts of the world. 'Ca. L. solanacearum' is a Gram-negative, fastidious -proteobacterium that is vectored by different psyllid species. Plant-pathogenic bacteria are known for interfering with the host physiology or defense mechanisms, often by secreting bacterial effectors. Effector proteins are critical for virulence; therefore, the identification of effectors could help with disease management. In this study, we characterized the Sec-translocon-dependent 'Ca. L. solanacearum'-hypothetical protein effector 1 (Lso-HPE1). We compared this protein sequence in the different 'Ca. L. solanacearum' haplotypes. We predicted the signal peptide and validated its function using Escherichia coli's alkaline phosphatase fusion assay. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana demonstrated that Lso-HPE1 from 'Ca. L. solanacearum' haplotypes A and B were able to inhibit the induction of cell death in plants. We also compared gene expression of the Lso-HPE1- transcripts in 'Ca. L. solanacearum' haplotypes A and B in tomato and in the vector Bactericera cockerelli. This work validates the identification of a Sec-translocon-dependent 'Ca. L. solanacearum' protein possibly involved in suppression of plant cell death.

published proceedings

  • Phytopathology

altmetric score

  • 0.5

author list (cited authors)

  • Levy, J. G., Gross, R., Mendoza-Herrera, A., Tang, X., Babilonia, K., Shan, L., ... Tamborindeguy, C.

citation count

  • 13

complete list of authors

  • Levy, Julien G||Gross, Rachel||Mendoza-Herrera, Azucena||Tang, Xiaotian||Babilonia, Kevin||Shan, Libo||Kuhl, Joseph C||Dibble, Margaret S||Xiao, Fangming||Tamborindeguy, Cecilia

publication date

  • March 2020