title: Understanding and exploiting late blight resistance in the age of effectors.
abstract: Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the world's third-largest food crop. It severely suffers from late blight, a devastating disease caused by Phytophthora infestans. This oomycete pathogen secretes host-translocated RXLR effectors that include avirulence (AVR) proteins, which are targeted by resistance (R) proteins from wild Solanum species. Most Solanum R genes appear to have coevolved with P. infestans at its center of origin in central Mexico. Various R and Avr genes were recently cloned, and here we catalog characterized R-AVR pairs. We describe the mechanisms that P. infestans employs for evading R protein recognition and discuss partial resistance and partial virulence phenotypes in the context of our knowledge of effector diversity and activity. Genome-wide catalogs of P. infestans effectors are available, enabling effectoromics approaches that accelerate R gene cloning and specificity profiling. Engineering R genes with expanded pathogen recognition has also become possible. Importantly, monitoring effector allelic diversity in pathogen populations can assist in R gene deployment in agriculture.
authors.affiliation: Wageningen UR Plant Breeding, 6700 AJ, Wageningen, The Netherlands. vivianne.vleeshouwers@wur.nl
authors.forename: Vivianne G A A
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Vleeshouwers
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Raffaele
authors.forename: Jack H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Vossen
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Champouret
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oliva
authors.forename: Maria E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Segretin
authors.forename: Hendrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rietman
authors.forename: Liliana M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Cano
authors.forename: Anoma
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lokossou
authors.forename: Geert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kessel
authors.forename: Mathieu A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pel
authors.forename: Sophien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kamoun
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D060467:Disease Resistance / Q000235:genetics; D005800:Genes, Fungal / Q000235:genetics*; D017343:Genes, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D023281:Genomics; D010641:Phenotype; D010838:Phytophthora / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000235:genetics*; D057865:Plant Immunity / Q000235:genetics*; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000235:genetics*; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics