A fungal avirulence factor encoded in a highly plastic genomic region triggers partial resistance to septoria tritici blotch

What is it about?

We identified in the latent necrotrophic wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici an avirulence factor, Avr3D1, whose recognition contributes to quantitative resistance, leading to a reduction rather than the absence of symptoms. Avr3D1 is a member of a cluster of putative effector genes that resides in a highly plastic genomic region rich in transposable elements. We found strong evidence for diversifying selection acting on Avr3D1, likely driven by selection to escape host recognition via sequence modification, which we demonstrated for a virulent strain.

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