Initial assessment of gene diversity for the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans based on expressed sequences.

A total of 1000 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) corresponding to 760 unique sequence sets were identified using random sequencing of clones from a cDNA library constructed from mycelial RNA of Phytophthora infestans. A number of software programs, represented by a relational database and an analysis pipeline, were developed for the automated analysis and storage of the EST sequence data. A set of 419 nonredundant sequences, which correspond to a total of 632 ESTs (63.2%), were identified as showing significant matches to sequences deposited in public databases. A putative cellular identity and role was assigned to all 419 sequences. All major functional categories were represented by at least several ESTs. Four novel cDNAs containing sequences related to elicitins, a family of structurally related proteins that induce the hypersensitive response and condition avirulence of P. infestans on Nicotiana plants, were among the most notable genes identified. Two of these elicitin-like cDNAs were among the most abundant cDNAs examined. The set also contained several ESTs with high sequence similarity to unique plant genes.