Saccharomyces cerevisiae transcriptome response to overexpression of the Phytophthora sojae Avh110 effector

The oomycete pathogen Phytophthora sojae causes root rot of soybean. During infection, the pathogen is thought to deliver dozens, if not hundreds, of effector proteins into the host to manipulate intracellular systems. Although these pathogen proteins often exhibit similar N-terminal delivery domains, the remaining effector region is rarely homologous to known protein domains, making it difficult to predict its biochemical function during infection. As a complement to studies in the natural host, Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been successfully used as a model system to explore the biochemical function of individual pathogen effectors. The presumption is that many effectors target conserved eukaryotic pathways in the host and consequently the expression of effectors in yeast will confer corresponding phenotypes. Indeed, putative effector functions identified using yeast functional genomic approaches have subsequently been validated in the natural host. Over-expression of the Phytophthora sojae effector Avh110 (PsAvh110) inhibits the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, suggesting that the effector targets a biological pathway conserved with plants. In this study, the transcriptome of yeast expressing PsAvh110 or an empty vector were compared to examine the global transcriptional response, in hopes of discerning the effector's biochemical target.