PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Chandler A. Sutherland
AU  - Daniil M. Prigozhin
AU  - J. Grey Monroe
AU  - Ksenia V. Krasileva
TI  - High intraspecies allelic diversity in <em>Arabidopsis</em> NLR immune receptors is associated with higher transcription, gene body hypomethylation, and proximity to transposable elements
AID  - 10.1101/2023.01.12.523861
DP  - 2023 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2023.01.12.523861
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/01/13/2023.01.12.523861.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/01/13/2023.01.12.523861.full
AB  - Plants rely on Nucleotide-binding, Leucine-rich repeat Receptors (NLRs) for pathogen recognition. Highly variable NLRs (hvNLRs) show remarkable intra-species diversity, while their low variability paralogs (non-hvNLRs) are conserved between ecotypes. At a population level, hvNLRs provide new pathogen recognition specificities, but the association between allelic diversity and genomic and epigenomic features has not been established. Our investigation of NLRs in Arabidopsis Col-0 has revealed that hvNLRs show higher expression, less gene body cytosine methylation, and closer proximity to transposable elements than non-hvNLRs. How these features are established, maintained, and potentially driving the difference in the observed diversity of hv and non-hvNLRs is key to understanding the evolution of plant innate immune receptors.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.