A novel method of transcriptome interpretation reveals a quantitative suppressive effect on tomato immune signaling by two domains in a single pathogen effector protein.

RNA-Seq profiles can be used to observe relative contributions of effector subdomains to PTI suppression. Our analysis shows the CD and CTD multiplicatively affect the same gene transcript levels with a greater relative impact on genes whose expression is suppressed during PTI. The higher degree of up-regulation versus down-regulation during PTI is plausibly an evolutionary adaptation against effectors that target immune signaling.