Mutations were generated in TAL effector genes of XT4699 (Additional file 17: Figure S11), and analysis of host gene expression after inoculation of each TAL effector gene mutant revealed three differentially induced genes, corresponding to Affymetrix probes Ta.7291.1.S1_s_at, Ta.14824.1.S1_at and Ta.9765.1.S1_at, selected from the microarray analysis of XT4699 vs XT4699hrcC− comparison (Additional file 16: Table S6), were not induced during infections of mutants M2 (tal6−), M3 (tal7−) and M4 (tal1−), respectively (Additional file 18: Figure S12). Here, TAL1 is linked to infection.