A candidate effector protein PstCFEM1 contributes to virulence of stripe rust fungus and impairs wheat immunity

Abstract Common in Fungal Extracellular Membrane (CFEM) domain proteins are considered to be unique fungi and closely related pathogenicity. However, the Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici ( Pst ) effector containing CFEM has not been reported. Here, we obtained an effector, PstCFEM1, a functional N-terminal signal peptide sequence from race CYR31. qRT-PCR assay indicated that transcript levels of PstCFEM1 were highly induced during early stages infection. Overexpression suppressed Pst322 (an elicitor-like protein )-trigged cell death, reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation callose deposition. Host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) experiments showed knockdown decreased virulence , while ROS silenced plants increased near infection site. In addition, wheat -silenced construct resistance multiple races . Our data suggest suppresses defense by inhibiting contributes