GENETIC BASIS OF TRANSLOCATION OF MAGNAPORTHE ORYZAE AVR-Pik INTO RICE CELLS
H. PENNINGTON (1), A. Bialas (1), K. Yoshida (2), M. Banfield (1), R. Terauchi (3), S. Kamoun (1) (1) The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich Research Park, United Kingdom; (2) Laboratory of Plant Genetics, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University, Japan; (3) Iwate Biotechnology Research Center, Japan

Fungi and other filamentous pathogens secrete effectors inside host cells to help establish a successful infection in the host plant. However, the mechanism by which effectors translocate into the plant is unknown (Petre and Kamoun, 2014, PLOS Biology, 12:e1001801). The effector AVR-Pik is produced by the rice blast pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae and is detected by the rice intracellular NLR immune receptor Pik. The AVR-PikD isoform binds the HMA domain of the Pikp-1 protein with nanomolar affinity, indicating that AVR-Pik is translocated inside the host cell. In addition, the crystal structure of the AVR-PikD/Pikp-HMA complex has been resolved (Maqbool et al. 2015, eLife, 4:e08709) revealing the contact points between the effector and the NLR protein. The objective of this project is to take advantage of this basic knowledge to identify AVR-PikD residues that are required for translocation inside rice cells but do not affect detection by Pikp-1. This will help us to determine the genetic basis of translocation of AVR-Pik into rice cells.

Abstract Number: P9-294
Session Type: Poster