The Pleiades are a cluster of fungal effectors that inhibit host defenses

https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1009641

Biotrophic plant pathogens secrete effector proteins to manipulate the host physiology. Effectors suppress defenses and induce an environment favorable to disease development. In this paper we describe the functional characterization of the pleiades, a cluster of ten effector genes. Merope1, which is encoded in the Pleiades cluster, targets and promotes the auto-ubiquitination activity of RFI2, a conserved family of E3 ligases that regulates the production of PAMP-triggered ROS burst in plants.