Type III secreted "effector" proteins of bacterial pathogens play central roles in virulence, yet are notoriously difficult to identify. We used an in vivo genetic screen to identify 13 effectors secreted by the type III apparatus (called Hrp, for "hypersensitive response and pathogenicity") of the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. Although sharing little overall homology, the amino-terminal regions of these effectors had strikingly similar amino acid compositions. This feature facilitated the bioinformatic prediction of 38 P. syringae effectors, including 15 previously unknown proteins. The secretion of two of these putative effectors was shown to be type III--dependent. Effectors showed high interstrain variation, supporting a role for some effectors in adaptation to different hosts.

Individual strains of the plant pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae vary in their ability to produce toxins, nucleate ice, and resist antimicrobial compounds. These phenotypes enhance virulence, but it is not clear whether they play a dominant role in specific pathogen-host interactions. To investigate the evolution of these virulence-associated phenotypes, we used functional assays to survey for the distribution of these phenotypes among a collection of 95 P. syringae strains. All of these strains were phylogenetically characterized via multilocus sequence typing (MLST). We surveyed for the production of coronatine, phaseolotoxin, syringomycin, and tabtoxin; for resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, rifampin, streptomycin, tetracycline, kanamycin, and copper; and for the ability to nucleate ice at high temperatures via the ice-nucleating protein INA. We found that fewer than 50% of the strains produced toxins and significantly fewer strains than expected produced multiple toxins, leading to the speculation that there is a cost associated with the production of multiple toxins. None of these toxins was associated with host of isolation, and their distribution, relative to core genome phylogeny, indicated extensive horizontal genetic exchange. Most strains were resistant to ampicillin and copper and had the ability to nucleate ice, and yet very few strains were resistant to the other antibiotics. The distribution of the rare resistance phenotypes was also inconsistent with the clonal history of the species and did not associate with host of isolation. The present study provides a robust phylogenetic foundation for the study of these important virulence-associated phenotypes in P. syringae host colonization and pathogenesis.Pseudomonas syringae is one of the preeminent model systems for the study of host specificity and virulence. This gramnegative plant-pathogenic bacterium is the causal agent of a variety of bacterial spot, speck, and blight diseases on a wide range of plant hosts, including (but not limited to) apples, beets, beans, cabbage, cucumbers, flowers, oats, olives, peas, tobacco, tomato, and rice (25). Isolates of P. syringae are taxonomically subdivided into pathogenic varieties known as pathovars, based largely on their host of isolation. The tremendous diversity of hosts and disease symptomatology found in this species presents a unique opportunity to investigate the factors that determine host specificity.P. syringae uses an impressive variety of virulence-associated systems during the course of its host interactions. These systems produce toxins, ice nucleation proteins, antimicrobial resistance, and secreted effectors. The best-studied virulenceassociated factors are the effector proteins secreted through the type III secretion system, which both restrict and promote specific pathogen-host interactions (1,21,26,30,45). Also well studied, although perhaps less well understood, are the systems that produce toxins, nucleate ice, and confer antimicrobial resistance.

Pseudomonas syringae is a common foliar bacterium responsible for many important plant diseases. We studied the population structure and dynamics of the core genome of P. syringae via multilocus sequencing typing (MLST) of 60 strains, representing 21 pathovars and 2 nonpathogens, isolated from a variety of plant hosts. Seven housekeeping genes, dispersed around the P. syringae genome, were sequenced to obtain 400 to 500 nucleotides per gene. Forty unique sequence types were identified, with most strains falling into one of four major clades. Phylogenetic and maximum-likelihood analyses revealed a remarkable degree of congruence among the seven genes, indicating a common evolutionary history for the seven loci. MLST and population genetic analyses also found a very low level of recombination. Overall, mutation was found to be approximately four times more likely than recombination to change any single nucleotide. A skyline plot was used to study the demographic history of P. syringae. The species was found to have maintained a constant population size over time. Strains were also found to remain genetically homogeneous over many years, and when isolated from sites as widespread as the United States and Japan. An analysis of molecular variance found that host association explains only a small proportion of the total genetic variation in the sample. These analyses reveal that with respect to the core genome, P. syringae is a highly clonal and stable species that is endemic within plant populations, yet the genetic variation seen in these genes only weakly predicts host association.

z Each of these authors contributed equally to this study. SummaryGenetic screens have identi®ed a number of genes that regulate abscisic acid (ABA) responsiveness in Arabidopsis. Using a combination of suppressor screens and double mutant analysis, we have determined a genetic relationship for a number of these ABA response loci. Based on germination in the presence of exogenous ABA, the ABI1 and ABI2 phosphatases act at or upstream of the ERA1 farnesyl transferase and the ABI3 and ABI5 transcription factors act at or downstream of ERA1. In contrast with ABI3 and ABI5, the ABI4 transcription factor appears to act at or upstream of ERA1. Based on reporter gene constructs, the upstream regulation of ABI3 by ERA1 occurs at least partially at the level of transcription, suggesting that this lipid modi®cation is required to attenuate ABI3 expression. Similar experiments also indicate that ABI3 is auxin inducible in lateral root primordia. Related to this, loss-of-function abi3 alleles show reduced lateral root responsiveness in the presence of auxin and an auxin transport inhibitor, and era1 mutants have increased numbers of lateral roots. These results suggest the possibility that genes identi®ed through ABA responsive germination screens such as ERA1 and ABI3 have functions in auxin action in Arabidopsis.

It has come to our attention that the PtoDC3000 and PsyB728A strain names became switched for some of the analyses in this paper. This error specifically affects the placement of the two strain names in the rpoD split decomposition graph in Fig. 3 and the MLST analysis of recombination for the rpoD locus presented on p. 2006. Page 2005, Fig. 3, bottom panel: The strain names PtoDC3000 and PsyB728A should be switched. Pages 2006-2007: The entire "MLST analyses" section should be deleted. Page 2011, column 1, lines 19-26: "The MLST-based recombination analyses are. .. for a data set of the present size" should be deleted. As discussed in the original paper, these analyses were largely inconclusive. The error did not carry over into any other analyses and in no way changes the conclusions of the work.