小麦条锈菌为专性寄生真菌，在小麦上引起严重的病害。病菌频繁变异常导致小麦品种抗性不断“丧失”，引发病害流行。由于条锈菌不能培养，缺乏遗传转化体系，难以通过遗传学方法深入研究条锈菌致病机理，病害防治始终处于被动状态。为加快深入解析条锈菌致病及其变异机理的研究步伐，本项目拟在前期完成了条锈菌CYR32全基因组测序及5个不同毒性菌系重测序的基础上，大规模筛选条锈菌效应蛋白，解析条锈菌效应蛋白种间和种内变异特征；挖掘条锈菌关键效应蛋白基因，并利用瞬时表达、免疫荧光定位、酵母双杂交、寄主诱导的基因沉默（HIGS）、RNAi等技术方法，开展效应蛋白在条锈菌侵染小麦过程中的毒性功能、条锈菌效应蛋白作用的时空特征、效应蛋白互作靶标及其功能、效应蛋白生化功能等方面研究内容，以期揭示条锈菌效应蛋白调控寄主的作用机理，为深入揭示条锈菌致病及其变异机理提供理论依据，进而为开辟持久有效的条锈病防控策略奠定了基础。

Puccinia striiformis Westend. f. sp. tritici Eriks (PST), as an obligate parasitism fungi, causes devastating stripe rust disease in wheat. Resistance in wheat cultivars is usually overcome quickly by the rapid emergence of new virulent PST races, which frequently leads to the epidemic of the disease. PST can not be cultivated in vitro and lack the stable transformant system, which hinder the intensive researches on the pathogenetic mechanism of PST via the traditional genetic techniques. Thus it is difficult to effectively control the disease. To speed up the deciphering the mechanism of PST pathogenicity and the rapid virulence variation, we completed the genome sequencing of PST CYR32 and deep sequencing of five PST races with variant virulence, which provide us abundant gene resources for the screening of PST effectors. Thus, in this project, we will screen the PST effectors in the whole PST genome scale by transient expression on the tobacco, combining with the analysis of the intra-/inter-species polymorphism of the effectors, the key effectors in PST will be determined for further studies. And then analyse their spatial and temporal characteristics during wheat-Pst interaction, identify their host targets, analyse the roles of the target genes, reveal their biochemical function via sets of technology and methods and different research systems. Collectively, the results will reveal the roles of PST effectors in regulating host defense and metabolism, and provide strong theoretical basis for deeply exploring the mechanism of PST pathogenicity and virulence variation, which will then lay the foundation for establishing brand strategies for durable control the stripe rust disease.