Oh, the places they’ll go! A survey of phytopathogen effectors and their host targets ($)

All phytopathogens encode for a toolbox of secreted proteins called ‘effectors’ that promote disease formation in the best possible way. Effectors are either acting in the apoplastic space or are translocated to the host cell to target diverse processes and modulate the host using enzymatic activities. Khan et al. have surveyed the effector literature from numerous phytopathogens and have curated an overview of the locations of effector targets and their molecular and biological functions in terms of similarities and specificities in relation to the pathogen lifestyles. This survey shows that phytopathogens tend to use different immune-suppression strategies, exhibiting diverse properties of effector functions, particularly in targeting plant immunity. This mechanism requires either hijacking multiple components in the host cell or specializing in targeting crucial pressure-points of plant immunity. Hence this work has nicely shed light on the primary role of effectors and additionally points towards interesting specificities, depending on the virulence strategy of the pathogens (Summary by Amey Redkar) Plant Journal. 10.1111/tpj.13780.