Allelic variants of the Pseudomonas syringae type III effector HopZ1 are differentially recognized by plant resistance systems

The bacterial plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae depends on the type III secretion system and type III-secreted effectors to cause disease in plants. HopZ is a diverse family of type III effectors widely distributed in P. syringae isolates. Among the HopZ homologs, HopZ1 is ancient to P. syringae and has been shown to be under strong positive selection driven by plant resistance-imposed selective pressure. Here, we characterized the virulence and avirulence functions of the three HopZ1 alleles in soybean and Nicotiana benthamiana. In soybean, HopZ1 alleles have distinct functions: HopZ1a triggers defense response, HopZ1b promotes bacterial growth, and HopZ1c has no observable effect. In N. benthamiana, HopZ1a and HopZ1b both induce plant defense responses. However, they appear to trigger different resistance pathways, evidenced by two major differences between HopZ1a- and HopZ1b-triggered hypersensitive response (HR): i) the putative N-acylation sites had no effect on HopZ1a-triggered cell death, whereas it greatly enhanced HopZ1b-triggered cell death; and ii) the HopZ1b-triggered HR, but not the HopZ1a-triggered HR, was suppressed by another HopZ homolog, HopZ3. We previously demonstrated that HopZ1a most resembled the ancestral allelic form of HopZ1; therefore, this new evidence suggested that differentiated resistance systems have evolved in plant hosts to adapt to HopZ1 diversification in P. syringae.