Data from: The SUbventral-Gland Regulator (SUGR) of nematode virulence

All pathogens must tailor their gene expression to their environment.
Therefore, targeting host:parasite biology that regulates these changes in
gene expression could open up routes to pathogen control. Here, we show
that in the plant-parasitic nematode Heterodera
schachtii, host signals (termed effectostimulins) within plant
roots activate the master regulator sugr1. SUGR1, then, directly
binds effector promoters, and orchestrates their production. Effector
production, in turn, facilitates host entry, releasing more
effectostimulins. These data show that gene expression during the very
earliest stages of parasitism is defined by a feed forward loop for host
entry. Importantly, we demonstrate that blocking SUGR1 blocks parasitism,
underlining the SUGR1 signalling cascade as a valuable target for crop
protection. Given that nematodes also parasitise humans and other animals,
the potential impact is broad: disrupting effector production could, in
principle, be applied to any pathogen that secrets effectors.