This important book updates and documents the recent progress on genome-enabled technologies that have enhanced, and will continue to refine, our understanding of how plants and microbes interact at the molecular level. It includes studies that show the power of integrating imaging with genetic and genomic tools to not only link genes to function, but also to understand the dynamic behaviors and interactions of plant and pathogen molecules.

It emphasizes the contribution of computational biology to deciphering the genome and to revealing the complex signals and biochemical networks that are involved in plant-pathogen interactions, including intriguing advances reported for fungal, oomycete, and bacterial pathogens. It reports new approaches to identify host genes important in disease, and suggests novel strategies for generating crops with broad-spectrum and durable resistance to important pathogens.

Twenty-five leading molecular scientists from Japan and USA contributed to this effort. These scientists participated in the 2010 Japan-US Seminar on Plant-Pathogen Interactions and the result of their collective research is now available in this limited-edition reference book. 

Genome-Enabled Analysis of Plant-Pathogen Interactions

Chapter 1: Past steps in understanding specificity in host–parasite interactions: Retracing the US-Japan seminars

Chapter 2: Systems-wide analysis of the signaling network controlling plant immunity

Chapter 3: Analysis of a plant susceptibility response and its similarities to resistance

Chapter 4: Association genetics reveals genes critical for Magnaporthe-rice interactions

Chapter 5: Defense system induced by elicitin-like proteins of the biocontrol agent Pythium oligandrum

Chapter 6: Nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species in plant defense responses

Chapter 7: The roles of calcium and calmodulin binding protein 60g in Arabidopsis defense signaling

Chapter 8: Chitin receptor for plant innate immunity

Chapter 9: Genome analyses to understand durable disease resistance in rice

Chapter 10: Towards understanding effector secretion, translocation and cell-to-cell trafficking during biotrophic invasion by the rice blast fungus

Chapter 11: Genetic analyses of “host species specificity” of Magnaporthe oryzae/grisea

Chapter 12: Pathogenesis and plant basal resistance in Colletotrichum orbiculare and Magnaporthe
 oryzae infection

Chapter 13: Regulatory mechanisms in plant defense to necrotrophic fungi

Chapter 14: Defense mechanisms mediated by chitin in rice-blast interactions

Chapter 15: Genome-enabled evaluation of specificity in citrus and Alternaria interactions

Chapter 16: Suppression of defense–The role of fungal suppressors in conditioning plant susceptibility

Chapter 17: Cochliobolus heterostrophus and maize: A model for genome wide integration of iron homeostasis, oxidative stress management, and virulence

Chapter 18: Towards a systems-level understanding of oomycete-plant interactions

Chapter 19: Pseudomonas syringae: A model for systems-level exploration of plant-microbe interactions

Chapter 20: Phyllosphere microbiology: Interactions of Pseudomonas syringae with itself and with the plants on which it lives

Chapter 21: Targeting of the rice transcriptome by TAL effectors of Xanthomonas oryzae

Chapter 22: Unique features of a phytoplasma genome and its membrane proteins involved in host specificity

Chapter 23: Glycosylation of bacterial flagellins and its role in motility and virulence

Chapter 24: Pathogenicity determinants of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri, causative agent of citrus canker

Chapter 25: AutoSPOTs: Automated image analysis for eumerating callose deposition

“…reports novel approaches to identify host genes important in disease and plant disease resistance and plant defense mechanisms. Should be available in any research laboratory dealing with plant pathology or mycology, and all university libraries. This book can be considered as a splendid collection of references for researchers involved in plant pathology.”
—Fungal Diversity