A Comprehensive Assessment of the Secretome Responsible for Host Adaptation of the Legume Root Pathogen Aphanomyces euteiches

Abstract

The soil-borne oomycete pathogen <i>Aphanomyces euteiches</i> causes devastating root rot diseases in legumes such as pea and alfalfa. The different pathotypes of <i>A. euteiches</i> have been shown to exhibit differential quantitative virulence, but the molecular basis of host adaptation has not yet been clarified. Here, we re-sequenced a pea field reference strain of <i>A. euteiches</i> ATCC201684 with PacBio long-reads and took advantage of the technology to generate the mitochondrial genome. We identified that the secretome of <i>A. euteiches</i> is characterized by a large portfolio of secreted proteases and carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes). We performed Illumina sequencing of four strains of <i>A. euteiches</i> with contrasted specificity to pea or alfalfa and found in different geographical areas. Comparative analysis showed that the core secretome is largely represented by CAZymes and proteases. The specific secretome is mainly composed of a large set of small, secreted proteins (SSP) without any predicted functional domain, suggesting that the legume preference of the pathogen is probably associated with unknown functions. This study forms the basis for further investigations into the mechanisms of interaction of <i>A. euteiches</i> with legumes.