ather than sequential attacking. Similarly, a single peak expression of the effector dspA/E at 48 hpi was found in E. amylovora populations growing epiphytically on apple stigmas. Fast infections might be advantageous, since plant defense is encountered in an initially uninduced state. Notably, even the presence of an avirulent E. amylovora strain is detected by the plant and triggers a rapid defense response. Also important in this context is flower age. E. amylovora infects successfully flowers 13 days old but susceptibility drastically decreases with flower age. This is in good accordance with what we have observed in our greenhouse experiments visually and in gene expression. Petal leaf fall and necrosis of the stigmas were observed from the third day on and concomitantly also expression of the type III secretion system declined 72 h post inoculation. This emphasizes the importance of a fast expression of the type III secretion system especially during early plant invasion by E. amylovora. In contrast to the expression profile of the type III secretion system, expression of amsG, the first gene in the amylovoran synthesis operon, was only basally expressed during early infection. This is in accordance with previous observations that this virulence factor is important later in Darapladib pathogenicity. When comparing the E. amylovora hrp/dspA/E gene expression profile with the leaf pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola, a similar peak expression curve is evident, however, the period of hrp expression was shortened to 24 h upon P. syringae infiltration into host leaves. PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22190001 Characteristic for both pathogens seems to be that strong hrp expression is followed by a decline in expression during the infection. P. syringae cells turned their type III secretion off as soon as they had established inside the plant which might be similar for E. amylovora but has not been investigated yet. For other plant pathogens with similar type III secretion systems such as Erwinia herbicola or Pantoea stewartii information about expression profiles during plant invasion are currently not available but could reveal if this expression pattern is common to plant pathogens. Accumulation of hrp transcripts differed between single inoculated flowers indicative for induction to various degrees. These variable transcript levels did not correlate with the bacterial cell number as estimated by abundance of two independent reference gene transcripts, but correlated significantly with hrpL transcript abundance. The close coexpression of hrpA, hrpN, and dspA/E with hrpL demonstrated by correlation coefficients above 0.7 is consistent with a direct genetic induction of this system through hrpL. hrpL transcript E. amylovora hrp Expression Outruns Plant Defense accumulation itself 
varied up to 5-fold during peak expression between individual flowers, which might be explained by a different amount of bacteria that reached the hypanthium. We hypothesize that highest expression could be expected in bacterial populations staying at the nectaries or inside the plant whereas lower expression could be expected in epiphytically growing populations. In conclusion, the variable overall expression would explain why even in artificially inoculated flowers, only a portion become infected and shows symptoms later on. The relative transcript abundances between genes were found in both independent inoculation experiments in the order hrpA.hrpN.hrpL.dspA/E. The exceptionally low but efficient