Candidate effectors for leaf rust resistance gene Lr28 identified through transcriptome and in-silico analysis

Area of Science:

• Plant Pathology
• Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
• Genomics

Background:

• Wheat rust diseases, caused by Puccinia species, lead to significant crop losses.
• Understanding pathogen effector proteins is crucial for developing disease resistance strategies in wheat.
• In silico approaches combined with transcriptome analysis aid in identifying novel effector proteins.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and characterize potential effector proteins secreted by Puccinia triticina (Pt) during wheat leaf rust infection.
• To predict effector-like features and analyze the expression patterns of candidate genes.
• To investigate the interaction between putative Pt effectors and wheat resistance proteins.

Main Methods:

• Transcriptome analysis to identify differentially expressed coding sequences (CDSs) in wheat during rust interaction.
• In silico tools (NCBI-BLAST, PHI-BLAST, EffectorP 3.0) for sequence annotation and effector prediction.
• Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) for expression analysis and molecular docking/MD simulations for interaction studies.

Main Results:

• Thirteen Pt CDSs were identified, with nine showing effector-like features based on EffectorP 3.0 analysis.
• Expression analysis revealed distinct temporal patterns in compatible and incompatible wheat-rust interactions.
• Six CDSs were selected as putative Pt effectors, with c14094_g1_i1 showing strong binding affinity to the wheat Lr28 resistance protein.

Conclusions:

• Six candidate Pt effector proteins were identified, providing insights into wheat leaf rust pathogenesis.
• The strong interaction between candidate effector c14094_g1_i1 and Lr28 protein highlights a potential target for resistance.
• These findings can facilitate the development of novel breeding strategies for durable rust resistance in wheat.