A Fungal Effector Suppresses the Nuclear Export of AGO1-miRNA Complex to Promote Infection in Plants

Communication between interacting organisms via bioactive molecules is widespread in nature and plays key roles in diverse biological processes. Small RNAs (sRNAs) can travel between host plants and filamentous pathogens to trigger trans-kingdom RNA interference (RNAi) in recipient cells and modulate plant defense and pathogen virulence. However, how trans-kingdom RNAi is regulated has rarely been reported. Here, we show that the secretory protein VdSSR1 (secretory silencing repressor 1) from Verticillium dahliae, a soil-borne phytopathogenic fungus that causes wilt diseases in a wide range of plant hosts, is required for fungal virulence in plants through the suppression of trans-kingdom RNAi. Overall design: Two col-0 samples,Two SSR1 overexpression samples and two alys samples were sequenced for mRNA and sRNA