This project will genome-wide identify virulence effectors in P. Sojae with the state-of-the-art
bioinformatics methods, and these virulence effectors are candidate targets of pathogen-resistant
methods. The PI was supported by Nebraska Soybean Board to study on the molecular mimicry
between bacterial pathogenic effectors and soybean proteins, and functions of bacterial effectors
were discovered by our designed protein structure modeling algorithms and modeled soybean
protein structures, which has been published. Though the oomycete and bacterial pathogens are
different, the principles of protein structure-function predictions are the same and the alreadymodeled
structures of soybean proteins will serve as a valuable resource for the proposed oomycete
pathogenic effector study. Therefore, we will explore the so-far blank research area of molecular
mimicry between oomycete effectors and soybean proteins by extending our protein structure
algorithms to P. Sojae. As a result, the mechanism under which P. Sojae interacts with and infects
soybean can be elucidated, which may directly lead to feasible and efficient methods to prevent
soybean.