Pseudomonas syringae is a model plant pathogen for studying bacterial pathogenicity, in particular the molecular mechanisms of disease establishment. The P. syringae species complex is currently represented by 64 pathovars, with each pathovar identified as infecting a select host plant genus, but often possessing the capacity to infect more, being restricted by plant immunity and environmental parameters (

21Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae ICMP 18884 biovar 3 (Psa3) produces 22 necrotic lesions during infection of its kiwifruit host. Bacterial growth in planta 23 and lesion formation are dependent upon a functional type III secretion system 24 (T3S), which translocates multiple effector proteins into host cells. Associated 25 with the T3S locus is the conserved effector locus (CEL), which has been 26 characterised and shown to be essential for the full virulence in other P. syringae 27 pathovars. Two effectors at the CEL, hopM1 and avrE1, as well as an avrE1-related 28 non-CEL effector, hopR1, have been shown to be redundant in the model pathogen 29 P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (Pto), a close relative of Psa. However, it is not 30 known whether CEL-related effectors are required for Psa pathogenicity. The Psa3 31 allele of hopM1, and its associated chaperone, shcM, have diverged significantly 32 from their orthologs in Pto. Furthermore, the CEL effector hopAA1-1, as well as a 33 related non-CEL effector, hopAA1-2, have both been pseudogenised. We have 34shown that HopM1 does not contribute to Psa3 virulence due to a truncation in 35 shcM, a truncation conserved in the Psa lineage, likely due to the need to evade 36 HopM1-triggered immunity in kiwifruit. We characterised the virulence 37 contribution of CEL and related effectors in Psa3 and found that only avrE1 and 38 hopR1, additively, are required for in planta growth and lesion production. This is 39 unlike the redundancy described for these effectors in Pto and indicates that these 40

We report on the whole-genome sequence of Paenibacillus sp. strain E222, a bacterium isolated from a fresh culture of Epichloë festucae var. lolii, a mutualistic fungal endophyte of perennial ryegrass. The genome has a size of 7.8 Mb and a G+C content of 46% and encodes 6,796 putative protein-coding genes.