William Morgan

TL;DR: The sequence of the P. infestans genome is reported, which at ∼240 megabases (Mb) is by far the largest and most complex genome sequenced so far in the chromalveolates and probably plays a crucial part in the rapid adaptability of the pathogen to host plants and underpins its evolutionary potential.

TL;DR: The Irish potato famine pathogen Phytophthora infestans is predicted to secrete hundreds of effector proteins and it is revealed that 16 of the 62 examined effectors cause phenotypes when expressed inside plant cells, and structure-function experiments indicated that a 34–amino acid region in the C-terminal half of AVRblb2 is sufficient for triggering Rpi-blb 2 hypersensitivity.

TL;DR: RXLR sequence is overrepresented and positionally constrained in the secretome of Phytophthora relative to other eukaryotes and robust evidence of positive selection is obtained in more than two-thirds of the examined paralog families of RXLR effectors.

TL;DR: Oomycetes are a phylogenetically distinct group of organisms that include some of the most devastating plant pathogens, and recent characterization of four oomycete Avr genes revealed that they encode effector proteins with a common modular structure, including a N-terminal conserved RXLR motif.

TL;DR: Three splicing patterns were identified used to excise the small intron common to all three transcripts encoded by minute virus of mice-specific cDNAs, which would allow the translation of five distinct polypeptides from these two mRNAs.