Core effectors of the Fusarium pan-effectome contribute to host specificity.

FUSEC, built from 188 genomes across 27 Fusarium sambucinum species complex isolates, defines 4,057 effector families and a conserved soft-core of 235 families.

• Why it matters: Effector diversity and evolution in Fusarium are poorly resolved, limiting understanding of how plants recognize fungal attack and how host specificity emerges.
• What they did: The authors constructed a sequence-defined pan-effectome (FUSEC), reorganized conserved families into 184 structure-defined groups, then screened 44 candidate families for adaptive evolution and tested them in wheat and Fusarium graminearum.
• The result: Most candidates altered wheat immune responses, and CRISPR-Cas9 deletions in Fusarium graminearum showed multiple conserved effectors contribute to cultivar-dependent Fusarium head blight severity.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.