摘要Soybean rust(SBR),caused by an obligate biotrophic pathogen Phakopsora pachyrhizi,is a devastating disease of soybean worldwide.However,the mech-anisms underlying plant invasion by P.pachyrhizi are poorly understood,which hinders the development of effective control strategies for SBR.Here we per-formed detailed histological characterization on the infection cycle of P.pachyrhizi in soybean and con-ducted a high-resolution transcriptional dissection of P.pachyrhizi during infection.This revealed P.pa-chyrhizi infection leads to significant changes in gene expression with 10 co-expressed gene modules,representing dramatic transcriptional shifts in me-tabolism and signal transduction during different stages throughout the infection cycle.Numerous genes encoding secreted protein are biphasic ex-pressed,and are capable of inhibiting programmed cell death triggered by microbial effectors.Notably,three co-expressed P.pachyrhizi apoplastic effectors(PpAE1,PpAE2,and PpAE3)were found to suppress plant immune responses and were essential for P.pachyrhizi infection.Double-stranded RNA coupled with nanomaterials significantly inhibited SBR in-fection by targeting PpAE1,PpAE2,and PpAE3,and provided long-lasting protection to soybean against P.pachyrhizi.Together,this study revealed prom-inent changes in gene expression associated with SBR and identified P.pachyrhizi virulence effectors as promising targets of RNA interference-based soybean protection strategy against SBR.