Characterizing Phytophthora palmivora Virulence Gene Variation Using Targeted Capture Sequencing and RNA-seq

Conclusion and future directionsOur integrated analysis reveals that Phytophthora palmivora populations infecting cacao exhibit clear genetic structure, shaped by host association and geographic distribution.By combining capture-seq with RNA-seq, we identified a core set of virulence genesincluding RxLRs, elicitins, and secreted enzymes-that are differentially expressed during infection and genetically variable across isolates.These findings highlight candidate effectors under potential host-and region-specific selection.Do we have a population structure in the P. palmivora population?