An effector essential for virulence of necrotrophic fungi targets plant HIRs to inhibit host immunity.

Phytopathogens often secrete effectors to enhance their infection of plants. In the case of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, a necrotrophic phytopathogen, a secreted protein named SsPEIE1 (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Plant Early Immunosuppressive Effector 1) plays a crucial role in its virulence. During the early stages of infection, SsPEIE1 is significantly up-regulated. Additionally, transgenic plants expressing SsPEIE1 exhibit increased susceptibility to different phytopathogens. Further investigations revealed that SsPEIE1 interacts with a plasma membrane protein known as hypersensitive induced reaction (HIR) that dampens immune responses. SsPEIE1 is required for S. sclerotiorum virulence on wild-type Arabidopsis but not on Arabidopsis hir4 mutants. Moreover, Arabidopsis hir2 and hir4 mutants exhibit suppressed pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggered reactive oxygen species (ROS) bursts and salicylic acid (SA)-associated immune gene induction, all of which are phenocopied by the SsPEIE1 transgenic plants. We find that the oligomerization of AtHIR4 is essential for its role in mediating immunity, and that SsPEIE1 inhibits its oligomerization through competitively binding to AtHIR4. Remarkably, both Arabidopsis and rapeseed plants overexpress AtHIR4 display significantly increased resistance to S. sclerotiorum. In summary, these results demonstrate that SsPEIE1 inhibits AtHIR4 oligomerization-mediated immune responses by interacting with the key immune factor AtHIR4, thereby promoting S. sclerotiorum infection.