Many of the plant pathogens inject effector proteins into plant cells to
attack the host's immune system and it has been unclear how the complex
system of attack works. Researchers from Cornell University and Chinese
Academy of Agricultural Sciences published in Cell Reports a new
experimental system for studying effector interplay to sabotage a plant's
defenses.



The researchers reported that the experimental system that they developed is
based on an engineered strain of Pseudomonas syringae pathogen called DC3000
and the wild tobacco Nicotiana benthamiana. The unmodified DC3000 deploys 29
effector proteins, but the engineered version lacks all these, allowing the
researchers to add effectors gradually to determine their actions in
inducing and suppressing the plant's immune responses. This strategy helped
them understand how effectors work together to combat the plant's internal
anti-effector surveillance system.



They found that six of the 29 DC3000 effector proteins trigger defense
responses linked with detection by the plant's immune system. However, many
of the remaining 23 effectors work in tandem with the detected effectors to
suppress this plant's immune response, thus enabling pathogen success.

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