The potato late-blight disease is caused by the pseudofungus Phytophthora infestans (Oomycetes). This pathogen was of historical importance as it caused the Irish Potato Famine. There is currently a worldwide resurgence of the disease. Following worldwide migrations as well as being able to discriminate P. infestans from related species are key issues. We present sequence variation of five inte...

Not long after taxonomists recognized that among the saprolegniaceous fungi there were homologous groups possessing similar devices for insuring reproduction, they began industriously arranging these groups into hierarchical clusters to suggest relationships. Although the resulting phylogenetic schemes were fashioned around the relatively simple structure of the individual species, mycologists ...

Lysobacter enzymogenes C3 is a bacterial biological control agent that exhibits antagonism against multiple fungal pathogens. Its antifungal activity was attributed in part to lytic enzymes. In this study, a heat-stable antifungal factor (HSAF), an antibiotic complex consisting of dihydromaltophilin and structurally related macrocyclic lactams, was found to be responsible for antagonism by C3 a...

In eukaryotes phospholipase D (PLD) is involved in many cellular processes. Currently little is known about PLDs in oomycetes. Here we report that the oomycete plant pathogen Phytophthora infestans has a large repertoire of PLDs divided over six subfamilies: PXPH-PLD, PXTM-PLD, TM-PLD, PLD-likes, and type A and B sPLD-likes. Since the latter have signal peptides we developed a method using meta...

Oomycetes, such as Phytophthora spp., establish pathogenic interactions with a diversity of plants, but the molecular mechanisms underlying these diseases remain poorly characterized. However, research on Phytophthora pathosystems has accelerated significantly with ongoing advances in microbial and plant genomics and the resulting resources. A variety of functional analyses are being used to as...

Several obligate biotrophic phytopathogens, namely oomycetes and fungi, invade and feed on living plant cells through specialized structures known as haustoria. Deploying an arsenal of secreted proteins called effectors, these pathogens balance their parasitic propagation by subverting plant immunity without sacrificing host cells. Such secreted proteins, which are thought to be delivered by ha...

An efficient synthesis of a series of 4'-oxyalkyl-isocordoin analogues (2-8) is reported for the first time. Their structures were confirmed by ¹H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and HRMS. Their anti-oomycete activity was evaluated by mycelium and spores inhibition assay against two selected pathogenic oomycetes strains: Saprolegnia parasitica and Saprolegnia australis. The entire series of isocordoin derivative...