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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH FRONT

Effectors of biotrophic fungal plant pathogens

Pamela H. P. Gan A , Maryam Rafiqi A , Adrienne R. Hardham A and Peter N. Dodds B C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Plant Science Division, Research School of Biology, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

B CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: peter.dodds@csiro.au

Functional Plant Biology 37(10) 913-918 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP10072
Submitted: 31 March 2010  Accepted: 15 June 2010   Published: 23 September 2010

Abstract

Plant pathogenic biotrophic fungi are able to grow within living plant tissue due to the action of secreted pathogen proteins known as effectors that alter the response of plant cells to pathogens. The discovery and identification of these proteins has greatly expanded with the sequencing and annotation of fungal pathogen genomes. Studies to characterise effector function have revealed that a subset of these secreted pathogen proteins interact with plant proteins within the host cytoplasm. This review focuses on the effectors of intracellular biotrophic and hemibiotrophic fungal plant pathogens and summarises advances in understanding the roles of these proteins in disease and in elucidating the mechanism of fungal effector uptake into host cells.

Additional keywords: biotroph, fungi, hemibiotroph, translocation.


Acknowledgements

Research support from the Australian Research Council (ARH, PND) and an Australian Postgraduate Award (PHPG) is acknowledged.


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