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Review

Identification of Plasmodiophora brassicae effectors — A challenging goal

, , , , , & ORCID Icon show all
Pages 1344-1353 | Received 01 May 2018, Accepted 18 Jul 2018, Published online: 26 Aug 2018
 

ABSTRACT

Clubroot is an economically important disease affecting Brassica plants worldwide. Plasmodiophora brassicae is the protist pathogen associated with the disease, and its soil-borne obligate parasitic nature has impeded studies related to its biology and the mechanisms involved in its infection of the plant host. The identification of effector proteins is key to understanding how the pathogen manipulates the plant’s immune response and the genes involved in resistance. After more than 140 years studying clubroot and P. brassicae, very little is known about the effectors playing key roles in the infection process and subsequent disease progression. Here we analyze the information available for identified effectors and suggest several features of effector genes that can be used in the search for others. Based on the information presented in this review, we propose a comprehensive bioinformatics pipeline for effector identification and provide a list of the bioinformatics tools available for such.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Canada.