Ustilago maydis effectors in the post-genomic era
M. SCHUSTER (1), G. Schweizer (1), R. Kahmann (1), A. Lupas (2) (1) Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Germany; (2) Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Germany

Plant pathogenic smut fungi establish a biotrophic interaction with their respective host plants, and these relationships are governed by secretion fungal effector proteins. Such effector proteins suppress plant immune responses, facilitate nutrition and regulate the progress of the infection process. Ten years ago when the genome of Ustilago maydis was published it led to uncovering its effector repertoire, clustering of effector genes in the genome and the demonstration that these molecules are crucial determinants for virulence (Kämper et al., 2006). Now, 10 years later, seven genomes of smut fungi, parasitizing six different plant species are available. Furthermore, the genomes of several members of the putative non-pathogenic genus Pseudozyma have also been released. In addition several species of smut related fungi as the human pathogen Malassezia have also been sequenced. The present work provides a comprehensive overview of the effector repertoire of smut fungi, addressing evolutionary as well as functional aspects including host specificity. We describe that a substantial fraction of effectors is gathered in families with up to 15 members. These families are either physically linked in gene clusters, or reside in different locations in the genome. Finally we provide new developments in adapting the CRISPR-Cas9 technology to genome-modification in U. maydis to speed up the functional analysis of effector gene families.

Abstract Number: P11-375
Session Type: Poster