Just the surface: advances in the discovery and characterization of necrotrophic wheat effectors

For many years pathogens of wheat have remained poorly understood. Hindered by an inaccessible host and the obligate nature of many of the pathogens, our understanding of these interactions has been limited compared to other more amenable pathosystems. However, breakthroughs over recent years have shed new light on diseases of wheat, particularly those caused by the genetically tractable necrotrophic pathogens. We now understand that many of the necrotrophic fungal pathogens do interact with wheat in a strict gene-for gene relationship, and that pathogen and host partners in these interactions have now been identified. This improved understanding of necrotrophic effector biology has fundamentally changed the way we consider these important wheat diseases.