Large-Scale Identification and Characterization of Putative Effectors Suppressing or Inducing Cell Death in .

is one of the most important plant pathogens and causes vast losses in cereal crops. As a sedentary endoparasitic nematode, secretes effectors that modify plant defenses and promote its biotrophic infection of its hosts. However, the number of effectors involved in the interaction between and host defenses remains unclear. Here, we report the identification of putative effectors in that regulate plant defenses on a large scale. Our results showed that 78 of the 95 putative effectors suppressed programmed cell death (PCD) triggered by BAX and that 7 of the putative effectors themselves caused cell death in . Among the cell-death-inducing effectors, three were found to be dependent on their specific domains to trigger cell death and to be expressed in esophageal gland cells by hybridization. Ten candidate effectors that suppressed BAX-triggered PCD also suppressed PCD triggered by the elicitor PsojNIP and at least one R-protein/cognate effector pair, suggesting that they are active in suppressing both pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI). Notably, with the exception of isotig16060, these putative effectors could also suppress PCD triggered by cell-death-inducing effectors from , indicating that those effectors may cooperate to promote nematode parasitism. Collectively, our results indicate that the majority of the tested effectors of may play important roles in suppressing cell death induced by different elicitors in .