The secreted FoAPY1 peptidase promotes invasion.

The secretion of peptidases from several pathogens has been reported, but the biological function of these proteins in plant-pathogen interactions is poorly understood. , a soil-borne plant pathogenic fungus that causes wilt in its host, can secrete proteins into host plant cells during the infection process to interfere with the host plant defense response and promote disease occurrence. In this study, we identified a peptidase, FoAPY1, that could be secreted from depending on the N-terminal signal peptide of the protein. FoAPY1 belongs to the peptidase M28 family and exerts peptidase activity . Furthermore, the gene knockout strain (∆FoAYP1) presented reduced virulence to tomato plants, but its mycelial growth and conidiation were unchanged. Moreover, FoAYP1 overexpression tomato seedlings exhibited enhanced susceptibility to and strains. These data demonstrated that FoAYP1 contributes to the virulence of may through peptidase activity against host plant proteins.