Fig. 2: A distinct function for the ancestral variant of the XEG1 and XLP1 genes in Phytophthora. | Nature Communications

Fig. 2: A distinct function for the ancestral variant of the XEG1 and XLP1 genes in Phytophthora.

From: Specific selection on XEG1 and XLP1 genes correlates with host range and adaptability in Phytophthora

Fig. 2

a Virulence of P. sojae transformants on soybean hypocotyls. Representative symptoms at 48 h post-inoculation (hpi). The transformants include XELa replacing PsXEG1 (T9, T41, and control, CK_G) and XELa replacing PsXLP1 (T20, T38, and control, CK_P). Experiments were repeated three independent times with similar results. b, c Impact of PsXEG1 or PsXLP1 replacement on virulence in etiolated soybean hypocotyls. b Lesion lengths on hypocotyls produced by P. sojae (n = 15). c Relative biomass of the wild-type and transgenic P. sojae mutants infecting etiolated soybean hypocotyls, measured by gDNA qPCR (n = 9). b, c In the box plots, dots represent min-to-max value of individual data points, the line indicates the median, and the box boundaries indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles. Three independent experiments obtained similar results. Pairwise significance was determined using Duncan’s multiple range test (p < 0.01), with different letters representing significant differences. d Comparison of different ancestral nodes of Phytophthora XEG1 and XLP1 regarding their ability to induce cell death, produce reducing sugar, and their relative expression of defense genes. The age of the common ancestor proteins in millions of years is indicated at the corresponding node. The background shows a maximum likelihood evolutionary tree used to reconstruct ancestral genes, with the outgroup and partial terminal genes combined and nodes labeled accordingly. The pie chart illustrates the variations in activity efficiency, with green indicating an increase and blue indicating a decrease in the evolutionary pathways. At each ancestral node, the pie represents the average fold change in phenotypic measures normalized to XEGa or XLPa, respectively: reducing sugar (A), electrolyte leakage (B), and the relative expression of defense genes (C), including Pti5, Acre31, CYP71D20, and PAL10. The bottom pie chart corresponds to electrolyte leakage (n = 9 biological replicates), the right pie to the relative expression of defense genes (n = 3 biological replicates), and the left pie to reducing sugar production levels (n = 9 biological replicates). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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