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Updated: Jul 17, 2025

Unravelling the Function of a Bacterial Effector from a Non-cultivable Plant Pathogen Using a Yeast Two-hybrid Screen
11:30

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Surface frustration re-patterning underlies the structural landscape and evolvability of fungal orphan candidate

Mark C Derbyshire1, Sylvain Raffaele2

  • 1Centre for Crop and Disease Management, School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.

Nature Communications
|August 28, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Fungal effectors evolve robust structures by altering surface residue interactions. This allows pathogen proteins to maintain function across diverse hosts while enabling new adaptations, explaining their evolutionary success.

Area of Science:

  • Molecular biology
  • Evolutionary biology
  • Structural biology

Background:

  • Pathogen effector proteins manipulate host cells for disease.
  • Effectors face evolutionary pressure to evade host immunity while remaining functional.
  • Mechanisms for effector robustness and evolvability are poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate the structural basis of fungal effector evolution.
  • Identify conserved effector families in Pezizomycotina.
  • Elucidate how effectors balance structural stability with adaptability.

Main Methods:

  • Bioinformatic analysis of fungal orphan effector candidates.
  • Structural analysis of conserved effector families.
  • Assessment of thermodynamic frustration in surface residues.

Main Results:

  • Identified 62 conserved structure-related families of fungal effectors.
  • Observed diversification through mutations affecting surface thermodynamic frustration.
  • Mutations enhanced protein robustness and altered binding interfaces.

Conclusions:

  • Fungal effectors evolve via modifications in surface thermodynamic frustration.
  • This mechanism promotes structural robustness and functional adaptability.
  • Provides a model for the evolution of conserved effector structures and new effector families.

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