Identification and characterization of virulence-related effectors in the cucumber anthracnose fungus Colletotrichum orbiculare

The anthracnose fungus Colletotrichum orbiculare invades hosts and establishes biotrophy, later switching to necrotrophy, together with the secretion of an arsenal of effectors. In this review, we describe current progress in the study of pathogen effectors. We identified three virulence-related effectors in C. orbiculare, and revealed part of the strategy for effector-mediated infection, including suppression of immunity triggered by particular effectors. The virulence-related effectors accumulate in a unique interfacial region between C. orbiculare and cucumbers around the neck of primary biotrophic invasive hyphae. We found that the secretion of effectors toward the interface involves exocytosis and SEC22-dependent ER-Golgi traffic. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.