Utilizing Tajima's D to identify potential microbe-associated molecular patterns in Xanthomonas euvesicatoria and X. perforans

The coevolution between plants and pathogens constitutes a significant proportion of evolutionary history for both host and parasite. Here we used the population genetics test statistic Tajima's D to identify genes involved in plant-pathogen interactions between tomato and Xanthomonas euvesicatoria and X. perforans, the causal agents of bacterial spot disease of tomato. We assessed the usefulness of this method and experimentally confirmed alleles of known microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). Overall, we demonstrated the utility of population genetic statistics such as Tajima's D for the identification of genes that may be important for pathogen recognition by the host immune machinery.