title: Species-wide genetic incompatibility analysis identifies immune genes as hot spots of deleterious epistasis.
abstract: Intraspecific genetic incompatibilities prevent the assembly of specific alleles into single genotypes and influence genome- and species-wide patterns of sequence variation. A common incompatibility in plants is hybrid necrosis, characterized by autoimmune responses due to epistatic interactions between natural genetic variants. By systematically testing thousands of F1 hybrids of Arabidopsis thaliana strains, we identified a small number of incompatibility hot spots in the genome, often in regions densely populated by nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat (NLR) immune receptor genes. In several cases, these immune receptor loci interact with each other, suggestive of conflict within the immune system. A particularly dangerous locus is a highly variable cluster of NLR genes, DM2, which causes multiple independent incompatibilities with genes that encode a range of biochemical functions, including NLRs. Our findings suggest that deleterious interactions of immune receptors limit the combinations of favorable disease resistance alleles accessible to plant genomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Eunyoung
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chae
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bomblies
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Sang-Tae
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; Friedrich Miescher Laboratory, Max Planck Society, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Darya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Karelina
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Maricris
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zaidem
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ossowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martín-Pizarro
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Roosa A E
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Laitinen
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Beth A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Rowan
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Hezi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tenenboim
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lechner
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Demar
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Anette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Habring-Müller
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Christa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lanz
authors.affiliation: Friedrich Miescher Laboratory, Max Planck Society, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rätsch
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany. Electronic address: weigel@weigelworld.org.
authors.forename: Detlef
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Weigel
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D004843:Epistasis, Genetic; D018745:Genome, Plant; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D016415:Sequence Alignment