Pest and pathogen losses jeopardise global food security and ever since the 19th century Irish famine, potato late blight has exemplified this threat. The causal oomycete pathogen, Phytophthora infestans, undergoes major population shifts in agricultural systems via the successive emergence and migration of asexual lineages. The phenotypic and genotypic bases of these selective sweeps are largely unknown but management strategies need to adapt to reflect the changing pathogen population. Here, we used molecular markers to document the emergence of a lineage, termed 13_A2, in the European P. infestans population, and its rapid displacement of other lineages to exceed 75% of the pathogen population across Great Britain in less than three years. We show that isolates of the 13_A2 lineage are among the most aggressive on cultivated potatoes, outcompete other aggressive lineages in the field, and overcome previously effective forms of plant host resistance. Genome analyses of a 13_A2 isolate revealed extensive genetic and expression polymorphisms particularly in effector genes. Copy number variations, gene gains and losses, amino-acid replacements and changes in expression patterns of disease effector genes within the 13_A2 isolate likely contribute to enhanced virulence and aggressiveness to drive this population displacement. Importantly, 13_A2 isolates carry intact and in planta induced Avrblb1, Avrblb2 and Avrvnt1 effector genes that trigger resistance in potato lines carrying the corresponding R immune receptor genes Rpi-blb1, Rpi-blb2, and Rpi-vnt1.1. These findings point towards a strategy for deploying genetic resistance to mitigate the impact of the 13_A2 lineage and illustrate how pathogen population monitoring, combined with genome analysis, informs the management of devastating disease epidemics.

• A detailed molecular understanding of how oomycete plant pathogens evade disease resistance is essential to inform the deployment of durable resistance (R) genes. • Map-based cloning, transient expression in planta, pathogen transformation and DNA sequence variation across diverse isolates were used to identify and characterize PiAVR2 from potato late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans. • PiAVR2 is an RXLR-EER effector that is up-regulated during infection, accumulates at the site of haustoria formation, and is recognized inside host cells by potato protein R2. Expression of PiAVR2 in a virulent P. infestans isolate conveys a gain-of-avirulence phenotype, indicating that this is a dominant gene triggering R2-dependent disease resistance. PiAVR2 presence/absence polymorphisms and differential transcription explain virulence on R2 plants. Isolates infecting R2 plants express PiAVR2-like, which evades recognition by R2. PiAVR2 and PiAVR2-like differ in 13 amino acids, eight of which are in the C-terminal effector domain; one or more of these determines recognition by R2. Nevertheless, few polymorphisms were observed within each gene in pathogen isolates, suggesting limited selection pressure for change within PiAVR2 and PiAVR2-like. • Our results direct a search for R genes recognizing PiAVR2-like, which, deployed with R2, may exert strong selection pressure against the P. infestans population.

Oomycete plant pathogens cause a wide variety of economically and environmentally important plant diseases. Mandipropamid (MPD) is a carboxylic acid amide (CAA) effective against downy mildews, such as Plasmopara viticola on grapes and potato late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans. Historically, the identification of the mode of action of oomycete-specific control agents has been problematic. Here, we describe how a combination of biochemical and genetic techniques has been utilized to identify the molecular target of MPD in P. infestans. Phytophthora infestans germinating cysts treated with MPD produced swelling symptoms typical of cell wall synthesis inhibitors, and these effects were reversible after washing with H(2)O. Uptake studies with (14)C-labelled MPD showed that this oomycete control agent acts on the cell wall and does not enter the cell. Furthermore, (14)C glucose incorporation into cellulose was perturbed in the presence of MPD which, taken together, suggests that the inhibition of cellulose synthesis is the primary effect of MPD. Laboratory mutants, insensitive to MPD, were raised by ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) mutagenesis, and gene sequence analysis of cellulose synthase genes in these mutants revealed two point mutations in the PiCesA3 gene, known to be involved in cellulose synthesis. Both mutations in the PiCesA3 gene result in a change to the same amino acid (glycine-1105) in the protein. The transformation and expression of a mutated PiCesA3 allele was carried out in a sensitive wild-type isolate to demonstrate that the mutations in PiCesA3 were responsible for the MPD insensitivity phenotype.

Phenylamide fungicides have been widely used for the control of oomycete-incited plant diseases for over 30 years. Insensitivity to this chemical class of fungicide was recorded early in its usage history, but the precise protein(s) conditioning insensitivity has proven difficult to determine. To determine the genetic basis of insensitivity and to inform strategies for the cloning of the gene(s) responsible, genetic crosses were established between Mefenoxam sensitive and intermediate insensitive isolates of Phytophthora infestans, the potato late blight pathogen. F1 progeny showed the expected semi-dominant phenotypes for Mefenoxam insensitivity and suggested the involvement of multiple loci, complicating the positional cloning of the gene(s) conditioning insensitivity to Mefenoxam. Instead, a candidate gene strategy was used, based on previous observations that the primary effect of phenylamide compounds is to inhibit ribosomal RNA synthesis. The subunits of RNA polymerase I (RNApolI) were sequenced from sensitive and insensitive isolates and F1 progeny. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) specific to insensitive field isolates were identified in the gene encoding the large subunit of RNApolI. In a survey of field isolates, SNP T1145A (Y382F) showed an 86% association with Mefenoxam insensitivity. Isolates not showing this association belonged predominantly to one P. infestans genotype. The transfer of the 'insensitive' allele of RPA190 to a sensitive isolate yielded transgenic lines that were insensitive to Mefenoxam. These results demonstrate that sequence variation in RPA190 contributes to insensitivity to Mefenoxam in P. infestans.

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