During attachment Phytophthora spores secrete proteins containing thrombospondin type 1 repeats

Abstract

Adhesion is a key aspect of disease establishment in animals and plants. Adhesion anchors the parasite to the host surface and is a prerequisite for further development and host cell invasion. Although a number of adhesin molecules produced by animal pathogens have been characterised, molecular details of adhesins of plant pathogens, especially fungi, are largely restricted to general descriptions of the nature of heterogeneous secreted materials. In this paper, we report the cloning of a gene, PcVsv1, encoding a protein secreted during attachment of spores of Phytophthora, a genus of highly destructive plant pathogens. PcVsv1 contains 47 copies of the thrombospondin type 1 repeat, a motif found in adhesins of animals and malarial parasites but not in plants, green algae or true fungi. Our results suggest that PcVsv1 is a spore adhesin and highlight intriguing similarities in structural and molecular features of host attachment in oomycete and malarial parasites.

The Evolutionary Phylogeny of Oomycetes—Insights Gained from Studies of Holocarpic Parasites of Algae and Invertebrates

“…Like many basal oomycetes, these are parasites of many invertebrate phyla, such as mollusks and arthropods, but they also infect all classes of vertebrates as well (Marquardt and Speer, 2001). Recent genomic analysis has revealed many significant similarities at the molecular level between parasitism in apicocomplexans and oomycetes (Robold and Hardham, 2005;Torto-Alalibo et al, 2005;Bhattacharjee et al, 2006;Talbot, 2007). These similarities are reinforced when one considers that the initial stages of thallus development in all basal oomycete parasites of marine algae are as unwalled plasmodia (Fig.…”

The spore coat of the bean anthracnose fungus Colletotrichum lindemuthianum is required for adhesion, appressorium development and pathogenicity

“…A gene encoding a putative ECM protein, EMP1, has been identified in M. grisea [27]. Zoospores of the Oomycete pathogen, Phytophthora cinnamomi, release an adhesive with many copies of a motif found in adhesins of animals and malarial parasites [28]. Some fungal spores have a spore coat or distinct layer of material outside of the spore wall.…”

Dynamics and Innovations within Oomycete Genomes: Insights into Biology, Pathology, and Evolution

“…Oomycetes express several factors that may act in this role, including glue-like proteins released by zoospores, mucins, thrombospondin repeat proteins, jacalin domain proteins, and cellulose-binding proteins, including CBELs, which genome data indicate are made throughout oomycetes (25,31,68,84). Interestingly, CBELs contain a PAN/ apple domain also used by parasitic apicomplexans (also chromalveolates) to bind their hosts.…”