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Oomycetes

Adaptation after jumping ship

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 12, pages 236–237 (2014)Cite this article

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P. mirabilis diverged from P. infestans following a host jump more than 1,000 years ago, and since the split, 82 effector genes have been undergoing positive selection in the two species, which suggests that these genes contribute to host specialization. The authors selected the P. infestans cystatin-like protease inhibitor EpiC1 for further study; this effector targets defence proteases in Solanum plants to promote infection. Phylogenetic reconstruction of the EPIC1 gene family revealed that the EpiC1 orthologue in P. mirabilis (PmEpiC1) has undergone positive selection, consistent with the hypothesis that effector proteins are important for adaptation to a new host.

PmEpiC1 had lost the ability to efficiently inhibit the EpiC1 target protease as it evolved to target a homologous protease in its own host

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References

  1. Dong, S. et al. Effector specialization in a lineage of the Irish potato famine pathogen. Science 343, 552–555 (2014)

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  1. Christina Tobin Kåhrström
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Raffaele S. & Kamoun, S. Genome evolution in filamentous plant pathogens: why bigger can be better. Nature Rev. Microbiol. 10, 417–430 (2012)

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Kåhrström, C. Adaptation after jumping ship. Nat Rev Microbiol 12, 236–237 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3234

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