A Effector Protein 1 Targets Apple () Pathogenesis-Related 10 Protein to Promote Virulence.

To successfully colonize the plants, the pathogenic microbes secrete a mass of effector proteins which manipulate host immunity. Apple valsa canker is a destructive disease caused by the weakly parasitic fungus . A previous study indicated that the effector protein 1 () is an essential virulence factor. However, the pathogenic mechanism of in . remains poorly understood. In this study, we found that the apple () pathogenesis-related 10 proteins () are the virulence target of using a yeast two-hybrid screening. By bimolecular fluorescence (BiFC) and coimmunoprecipitation (Co-IP), we confirmed that the interacts with . Silencing of notably enhanced the . infection, and overexpression of markedly reduced its infection, which corroborates its positive role in plant immunity against . . Furthermore, we showed that the co-expression of with compromised the -mediated resistance to . . Taken together, our results revealed a mechanism by which a . effector protein suppresses the host immune responses by interfering with the -mediated resistance to . during the infection.