Browsing by Author "Bernal, Adriana"

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    Computational models in plant-pathogen interactions: the case of Phytophthora infestans
    Pinzón, Andrés; Barreto, Emiliano; Bernal, Adriana; Achenie, Luke E. K.; González Barrios, Andrés Fernando; Isea, Raúl; Restrepo, Silvia (2009-11-12)
    Background Phytophthora infestans is a devastating oomycete pathogen of potato production worldwide. This review explores the use of computational models for studying the molecular interactions between P. infestans and one of its hosts, Solanum tuberosum. Modeling and conclusion Deterministic logistics models have been widely used to study pathogenicity mechanisms since the early 1950s, and have focused on processes at higher biological resolution levels. In recent years, owing to the availability of high throughput biological data and computational resources, interest in stochastic modeling of plant-pathogen interactions has grown. Stochastic models better reflect the behavior of biological systems. Most modern approaches to plant pathology modeling require molecular kinetics information. Unfortunately, this information is not available for many plant pathogens, including P. infestans. Boolean formalism has compensated for the lack of kinetics; this is especially the case where comparative genomics, protein-protein interactions and differential gene expression are the most common data resources.
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    The Plant Pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato Is Genetically Monomorphic and under Strong Selection to Evade Tomato Immunity
    Cai, Rongman; Lewis, James; Yan, Shuangchun; Clarke, Christopher R.; Campanile, Francesco; Almeida, Nalvo F.; Studholme, David J.; Lindeberg, Magdalen; Schneider, David; Zaccardelli, Massimo; Setubal, João C.; Morales-Lizcano, Nadia P.; Bernal, Adriana; Coaker, Gitta; Baker, Christy; Bender, Carol L.; Leman, Scotland C.; Vinatzer, Boris A. (PLOS Pathogens, 2011-08-25)
    Recently, genome sequencing of many isolates of genetically monomorphic bacterial human pathogens has given new insights into pathogen microevolution and phylogeography. Here, we report a genome-based micro-evolutionary study of a bacterial plant pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. Only 267 mutations were identified between five sequenced isolates in 3,543,009 nt of analyzed genome sequence, which suggests a recent evolutionary origin of this pathogen. Further analysis with genome-derived markers of 89 world-wide isolates showed that several genotypes exist in North America and in Europe indicating frequent pathogen movement between these world regions. Genome-derived markers and molecular analyses of key pathogen loci important for virulence and motility both suggest ongoing adaptation to the tomato host. A mutational hotspot was found in the type III-secreted effector gene hopM1. These mutations abolish the cell death triggering activity of the full-length protein indicating strong selection for loss of function of this effector, which was previously considered a virulence factor. Two non-synonymous mutations in the flagellin-encoding gene fliC allowed identifying a new microbe associated molecular pattern (MAMP) in a region distinct from the known MAMP flg22. Interestingly, the ancestral allele of this MAMP induces a stronger tomato immune response than the derived alleles. The ancestral allele has largely disappeared from today’s Pto populations suggesting that flagellin-triggered immunity limits pathogen fitness even in highly virulent pathogens. An additional non-synonymous mutation was identified in flg22 in South American isolates. Therefore, MAMPs are more variable than expected differing even between otherwise almost identical isolates of the same pathogen strain.