help button home button Genetics J Nutrition
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wichmann, G.
Right arrow Articles by Bergelson, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Wichmann, G.
Right arrow Articles by Bergelson, J.
Genetics, Vol. 166, 693-706, February 2004, Copyright © 2004

Effector Genes of Xanthamonas axonopodis pv. vesicatoria Promote Transmission and Enhance Other Fitness Traits in the Field

Gale Wichmanna and Joy Bergelsona,b
a Committee on Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
b Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637

Corresponding author: Joy Bergelson, Department of Ecology and Evolution, 1101 E. 57th St., Chicago, IL 60637., jbergels{at}midway.uchicago.edu (E-mail)

Communicating editor: D. F. VOYTAS

Establishing durable disease resistance in agricultural crops, where much of the plant defense is provided through effector-R gene interactions, is complicated by the ability of pathogens to overcome R gene resistance by losing the corresponding effector gene. Many proposed methods to maintain disease resistance in the field depend on the idea that effector gene loss results in a fitness cost to the pathogen. In this article we test for fitness costs of effector gene function loss. We created directed knockouts of up to four effector genes from the bacterial plant pathogen Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. vesicatoria (Xav) and examined the effect of the loss of a functional gene product on several important fitness parameters in the field. These traits included transmission, lesion development, and epiphytic survival. We found that the products of all four effector genes had significant and often additive effects on fitness traits. Additional greenhouse tests revealed costs of effector gene loss on in planta growth and further showed that the effects on lesion development were separable from the effects on growth. Observable fitness effects of the three plasmid-borne effector genes were dependent upon the loss of functional avrBs2, indicating that complex functional interactions exist among effector genes with Xav.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 GeneticsHome page
A. Tellier and J. K. M. Brown
Polymorphism in Multilocus Host Parasite Coevolutionary Interactions
Genetics, November 1, 2007; 177(3): 1777 - 1790.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 ScienceHome page
S. Kay, S. Hahn, E. Marois, G. Hause, and U. Bonas
A Bacterial Effector Acts as a Plant Transcription Factor and Induces a Cell Size Regulator
Science, October 26, 2007; 318(5850): 648 - 651.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Appl. Environ. Microbiol.Home page
G. Wichmann, D. Ritchie, C. S. Kousik, and J. Bergelson
Reduced Genetic Variation Occurs among Genes of the Highly Clonal Plant Pathogen Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. vesicatoria, Including the Effector Gene avrBs2
Appl. Envir. Microbiol., May 1, 2005; 71(5): 2418 - 2432.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2004 by the Genetics Society of America.