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Poster

Session: Session 1 Presenting Authors at Posters (Odds)

P-133 - A barley NLR is targeted by a non-ribosomal peptide effector of the necrotrophic spot blotch fungus to trigger host cell death and establish pathogen virulence

Monday, July 14, 2025
13:30 - 15:15  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Microbial infection strategies (pathogens & non-pathogens)

    Presenting Author(s)

  • FK

    Florian Kümmel

    Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
    Cologne

    • Author(s)

  • YL

    Yueqiang Leng

    North Dakota State University, Department of Plant Pathology
    Fargo, North Dakota, United States

  • JJ

    Jan Jirschitzka

    Institute of Biochemistry, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
    C, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

  • SS

    Sara Stolze

    Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Proteomics Group
    Koeln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

  • LW

    Laurens Wachsmuth

    CECAD Research Center, Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne
    Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

  • MP

    Manolis Pasparakis

    Professor
    CECAD Research Center, Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne
    Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

  • SZ

    Shaobin Zhong, n/a

    Research Geneticist
    United States Department of Agriculture
    Fargo, North Dakota, United States

  • PS

    Paul Schulze-Lefert

    Professor
    Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
    Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

Virulence mechanisms of host-selective necrotrophic pathogens are poorly understood. The necrotrophic fungus Bipolaris sorokiniana isolate ND90Pr requires barley Scs6 to cause spot blotch disease and associated host cell death. Scs6 is located at the Mla resistance locus and encodes an intracellular NOD-like receptor (NLR). Virulence of ND90Pr depends on an uncharacterized effector produced by at least two non-ribosomal peptide (NRP) synthetases (NRPSs) encoded at the VHv1 locus. Intercellular washing fluid (IWF) from ND90Pr-infected barley, but not from nrps virulence mutants, induces Scs6-dependent cell death in barley and heterologous N. benthamiana leaves. Expression of Scs6 in human HEK293 cells followed by application of IWF from wild-type ND90Pr is sufficient to reconstitute a host cell death response, suggesting direct activation of SCS6 by the NRP effector. Scs6-mediated cell death in HEK293 cells is Ca2+-dependent but independent of known vertebrate cell death pathways. In N. benthamiana, oligomerization of SCS6 is detectable within 30 minutes of IWF infiltration, suggesting rapid effector translocation inside plant cells and NLR activation. We identified the mass of the NRP effector using high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) and analyzed its biochemical properties using peptidase digestion assays and MS/MS. Our findings indicate that a plant NLR can be directly targeted by an NRP effector of a necrotrophic fungus to induce cell death for disease susceptibility.