Concerted expansion and contraction of immune receptor gene repertoires in plant genomes

Abstract

Recent reports suggest that cell-surface and intracellular immune receptors function synergistically to activate robust defence against pathogens, but whether they co-evolve is unclear. Here we determined the numbers of cell-surface and intracellular immune receptors in 350 species. Surprisingly, the number of receptor genes that are predicted to encode cell-surface and intracellular immune receptors is strongly correlated. We suggest this is consistent with mutual potentiation of immunity initiated by cell-surface and intracellular receptors being reflected in the concerted co-evolution of the size of their repertoires across plant species.

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