A Growth Quantification Assay for Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis Isolates in Arabidopsis thaliana

• DOI: 10.1007/978-1-62703-986-4_12
• Publication Date: 2014-03-18T18:22:03Z
• Authors: Daniel F. A. Tomé; Jens Steinbrenner; Jim L. Beynon
• Keywords: Spores; Oomycetes; Arabidopsis; Biological Assay; Plants, Genetically Modified; Cells, Cultured

There is a considerable interest in determining the role of individual oomycete effectors in promoting disease. Widely used strategies are based on manipulating effector-expression levels in the pathogen and by over-expressing particular effectors in the host by genetic transformation. In the case of the oomycete, Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis (Hpa) genetic manipulation is not yet possible, so over-expression of predicted effectors in stably transformed Arabidopsis lines is used to investigate their capability for promoting virulence. Here, we describe a technique for quantifying pathogen growth based on the counting of asexual reproductive structures called sporangiophores in the compatible interaction between the Hpa isolate Noks1 and the Col-0 Arabidopsis accession.