Evolutionary Applications (2018) 11, 1342-1353

Lina Yang, Hai-Bing Ouyang, Zhi-Guo Fang, Wen Zhu, E-Jiao Wu, Gui-Huo Luo, Li-Ping Shang and Jiasui Zhan (2018)
Evidence for intragenic recombination and selective sweep in an effector gene of Phytophthora infestans
Evolutionary Applications 11 (8), 1342-1353
Abstract: Effectors, a group of small proteins secreted by pathogens, play a critical role in the antagonistic interaction between plant hosts and pathogens through their dual functions in regulating host immune systems and pathogen infection capability. In this study, evolution in effector genes was investigated through population genetic analysis of Avr3a sequences generated from 96 Phytophthora infestans isolates collected from six locations representing a range of thermal variation and cropping systems in China. We found high genetic variation in the Avr3a gene resulting from diverse mechanisms extending beyond point mutations, frameshift, and defeated start and stop codons to intragenic recombination. A total of 51 nucleotide haplotypes encoding 38 amino acid isoforms were detected in the 96 full sequences with nucleotide diversity in the pathogen populations ranging from 0.007 to 0.023 (mean = 0.017). Although haplotype and nucleotide diversity were high, the effector gene was dominated by only three haplotypes. Evidence for a selective sweep was provided by (i) the population genetic differentiation (G_ST) of haplotypes being lower than the population differentiation (F_ST) of SSR marker loci; and (ii) negative values of Tajima's D and Fu's FS. Annual mean temperature in the collection sites was negatively correlated with the frequency of the virulent form (Avr3a^EM), indicating Avr3a may be regulated by temperature. These results suggest that elevated air temperature due to global warming may hamper the development of pathogenicity traits in P. infestans and further study under confined thermal regimes may be required to confirm the hypothesis.
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Database assignments for author(s): Jiasui Zhan

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
molecular biology - genes

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Phytophthora infestans		China (south)
	Phytophthora infestans		China (NE)
	Phytophthora infestans		China (NW)