Summary The pathogenicity of the Gram‐negative plant‐pathogenic bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv) is dependent on type III effectors (T3Es) that are injected into plant cells by a type III secretion system and interfere with cellular processes to the benefit of the pathogen. In this study, we analyzed eight T3Es from Xcv strain 85‐10, six of which were newly identified effectors. Genetic studies and protoplast expression assays revealed that XopB and XopS contribute to disease symptoms and bacterial growth, and suppress pathogen‐associated molecular pattern (PAMP)‐triggered plant defense gene expression. In addition, XopB inhibits cell death reactions induced by different T3Es, thus suppressing defense responses related to both PAMP‐triggered immunity (PTI) and effector‐triggered immunity (ETI). XopB localizes to the Golgi apparatus and cytoplasm of the plant cell and interferes with eukaryotic vesicle trafficking. Interestingly, a XopB point mutant derivative was defective in the suppression of ETI‐related responses, but still interfered with vesicle trafficking and was only slightly affected with regard to the suppression of defense gene induction. This suggests that XopB‐mediated suppression of PTI and ETI is dependent on different mechanisms that can be functionally separated.

The Gram-negative bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv) causes bacterial spot disease of pepper and tomato by direct translocation of type III effector proteins into the plant cell cytosol. Once in the plant cell the effectors interfere with host cell processes and manipulate the plant transcriptome. Quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) is usually the method of choice to analyze transcriptional changes of selected plant genes. Reliable results depend, however, on measuring stably expressed reference genes that serve as internal normalization controls. We identified the most stably expressed tomato genes based on microarray analyses of Xcv-infected tomato leaves and evaluated the reliability of 11 genes for qRT-PCR studies in comparison to four traditionally employed reference genes. Three different statistical algorithms, geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper, concordantly determined the superiority of the newly identified reference genes. The most suitable reference genes encode proteins with homology to PHD finger family proteins and the U6 snRNA-associated protein LSm7. In addition, we identified pepper orthologs and validated several genes as reliable normalization controls for qRT-PCR analysis of Xcv-infected pepper plants. The newly identified reference genes will be beneficial for future qRT-PCR studies of the Xcv-tomato and Xcv-pepper pathosystems, as well as for the identification of suitable normalization controls for qRT-PCR studies of other plant-pathogen interactions, especially, if related plant species are used in combination with bacterial pathogens.

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