A small secreted protein in Zymoseptoria tritici is responsible for avirulence on wheat cultivars carrying the Stb6 resistance gene

What is it about?

Zymoseptoria tritici causes a major disease on wheat called Septoria tritici blotch (STB). This fungus has evolved resistance to all fungicide classes, so breeding for resistance has become essential for disease management. Interactions between hosts and plant pathogens are often governed by gene-for-gene (GFG) interactions, which involve avirulence effector proteins encoded by the pathogen interacting with disease resistance proteins encoded by the host. Detection of an avirulence effector by a resistance protein leads to resistance. Despite evidence that wheat - Z. tritici interactions are governed by GFG interactions, none of the corresponding genes were cloned until now. In this study we combined QTL linkage mapping with genome-wide association mapping to identify the AvrStb6 gene in Z. tritici responsible for resistance on wheat cultivars carrying Stb6. The discovery of AvrStb6 enables new lines of research to understand STB resistance in wheat.

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