Using population genomics to understand NLR diversity in wild tomato
R. STAM (1), A. Tellier (1), D. Scheikl (1) (1) Technische Universität München, Germany

NLRs (Nod-like Receptors) are Nucleotide-binding domain and Leucine rich Repeats (NB-LRR)-containing proteins that are important in plant resistance signalling. Many of the known pathogen Resistance (R)-genes in plants belong to the NLRs. NLRs occur in large numbers, clustered on the genome and show great variation between and within species. To date a number of studies has shown long-term evolutionary relationships of NLRs and have shown that different mechanisms might have been in place to accomplish such great NLR diversity as can be observed today. Evolution and population theory predict that also in short term interactions functional genes that play such an important role in the plant-pathogen interaction should be under certain selective pressure. Here we assess NLR diversity in a complex, outbreeding, wild tomato species. Using R-gene Enrichment Sequencing (RENSeq) we sequence R-genes in wild tomato populations from known geographical locations and assess short term evolutionary changes. We apply population genetics methods to detect patterns of selection and identify interesting NLR candidates. Here we show proof of principle of our methods within one wild tomato population and identify NLR under varying selective pressure. In addition, we will show how we expand these methods to various populations with differences in pathogen resistance. We can link these data to infection assays to understand plant and pathogen population dynamics and understand the evolutionary pressures driving the birth and death of NLR genes. Moreover, finding NLR under selection will allow identification of the of potentially new and important R-genes and can be a means of selecting candidate genes to study molecular biology of NB-LRR signaling. Our method can be expended to many model and crop species, hence our study can pave the way for further evolutionary and functional studies in NLR biology.

Abstract Number: C23-3, P13-415
Session Type: Concurrent