Interaction of Whitefly Effector G4 with Tomato Proteins Impacts Whitefly Performance

The phloem-feeding insect is an important pest, responsible for the transmission of several crop-threatening virus species. While feeding, the insect secretes a cocktail of effectors to modulate plant defense responses. Here, we present a set of proteins identified in an artificial diet on which was salivating. We subsequently studied whether these candidate effectors can play a role in plant immune suppression. Effector G4 was the most robust suppressor of an induced- reactive oxygen species (ROS) response in In addition, G4 was able to suppress ROS production in (tomato) and (pepper). G4 localized predominantly in the endoplasmic reticulum in leaves and colocalized with two identified target proteins in tomato: REF-like stress related protein 1 (RSP1) and meloidogyne-induced giant cell protein DB141 (MIPDB141). Silencing of in tomato reduced whitefly fecundity up to 40%, demonstrating that the protein is involved in susceptibility to . Together, our data demonstrate that effector G4 impairs tomato immunity to whiteflies by interfering with ROS production and via an interaction with tomato susceptibility protein MIPDB141. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.