The rocky road to NLR diversity in Arabidopsis thaliana
F. BEMM (1), A. Keller (1), D. Weigel (1) (1) MPI for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany, Germany

Nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat (NLR) containing genes represent one of the most important resistance gene families in plants. They are central to fight the tremendous diversity of microbe-derived effectors that attack a plant. NLRs have been shaped by repeated ancient and ongoing duplication events, with many being found in complex clusters. However, the true variation of NLRs within a single species is unknown. The high variability can already be seen within A. thaliana, but a detailed analysis has proven difficult since simple resequencing approaches have largely failed because of excessive sequence and copy number variation. We have successfully remedied these shortcomings by assembling individual genomes from short read and NLR-enriched long read data to obtain reliable NLR gene complements including their structural organization. First results for 30 diverse A. thaliana accessions revealed that the NLR’ome can be highly variable, with 130 to 180 NLRs per genome. Combining individual genomes into a pan-genome has allowed us to analyze intraspecific NLR variation as well as define a core and a pan NLR’ome. The final population-wide NLR’ome will extend our knowledge of evolutionary trajectories, conservation patterns and functional states. Our project will not serve as 'best practice' guide for future NLR studies, but also smoothen the so far rocky road towards understanding evolutionary forces that shape this important gene family.

Abstract Number: P17-494
Session Type: Poster