Transcriptome profiling of Phytophthora pathogenicity genes: regulation of cell wall degrading enzyme synthesis during plant infection

Secretion of enzymes that degrade plant cell walls is a key process in the successful infection of plants by bacterial, fungal and oomycete pathogens. However, despite their critical importance, in no case do we have a comprehensive understanding of the full gene complement and manner of transcriptional regulation of cell wall degrading enzymes in any pathogen. This project will address this gap in our knowledge by cataloguing these hydrolases in Phytophthora genomes, determining their expression patterns during plant infection, investigating the mechanisms underlying their transcriptional regulation and elucidating details of their secretion and mobility within infected plant tissues.