LOCALIZER: subcellular localization prediction of both plant and effector proteins in the plant cell
Résumé
Pathogens secrete effector proteins and many operate inside plant cells to enable infection. Some
effectors have been found to enter subcellular compartments by mimicking host targeting sequences.
Although many computational methods exist to predict plant protein subcellular localization, they
perform poorly for effectors. We introduce LOCALIZER for predicting plant and effector protein
localization to chloroplasts, mitochondria, and nuclei. LOCALIZER shows greater prediction accuracy
for chloroplast and mitochondrial targeting compared to other methods for 652 plant proteins. For 107
eukaryotic effectors, LOCALIZER outperforms other methods and predicts a previously unrecognized
chloroplast transit peptide for the ToxA effector, which we show translocates into tobacco chloroplasts.
Secretome-wide predictions and confocal microscopy reveal that rust fungi might have evolved
multiple effectors that target chloroplasts or nuclei. LOCALIZER is the first method for predicting
effector localisation in plants and is a valuable tool for prioritizing effector candidates for functional
investigations.