Genes, Vol. 11, Pages 1406: Comparative Genomics and Functional Studies of Wheat BED-NLR Loci

Genes, Vol. 11, Pages 1406: Comparative Genomics and Functional Studies of Wheat BED-NLR Loci
Genes doi: 10.3390/genes11121406
Authors:
Clemence Marchal
10+ Wheat Genome Project 10+ Wheat Genome Project
Georg Haberer
Manuel Spannagl
Cristobal Uauy

Nucleotide-binding leucine-rich-repeat (LRR) receptors (NLRs) with non-canonical integrated domains (NLR-IDs) are widespread in plant genomes. Zinc-finger BED (named after the Drosophila proteins Boundary Element-Associated Factor and DNA Replication-related Element binding Factor, named BED hereafter) are among the most frequently found IDs. Five BED-NLRs conferring resistance against bacterial and fungal pathogens have been characterized. However, it is unknown whether BED-NLRs function in a manner similar to other NLR-IDs. Here, we used chromosome-level assemblies of wheat to explore the Yr7 and Yr5a genomic regions and show that, unlike known NLR-ID loci, there is no evidence for a NLR-partner in their vicinity. Using neighbor-network analyses, we observed that BED domains from BED-NLRs share more similarities with BED domains from single-BED proteins and from BED-containing proteins harboring domains that are conserved in transposases. We identified a nuclear localization signal (NLS) in Yr7, Yr5, and the other characterized BED-NLRs. We thus propose that this is a feature of BED-NLRs that confer resistance to plant pathogens. We show that the NLS was functional in truncated versions of the Yr7 protein when expr...

Source: Genes - November 26, 2020 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Clemence Marchal 10+ Wheat Genome Project 10+ Wheat Genome Project Georg Haberer Manuel Spannagl Cristobal Uauy Tags: Article Source Type: research