How do some pathogens infect hundreds of plants?
The Septoria leaf blotch pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici encodes around 200 effectors used to infect its single host plant wheat. If a broad-range pathogen like Sclerotinia sclerotiorum followed a similar infection strategy, then it would require 80 000 effectors to deal with its over 400 host plants. That doesn't sound very realistic. Discover what we have learnt and how we made these findings by reading this "Behind the paper" entry.