Widespread premature transcription termination of Arabidopsis thaliana NLR genes by the spen protein FPA
- University of Dundee, United Kingdom
- University of Warwick, United Kingdom
- Indiana University, United States
Abstract
Genes involved in disease resistance are some of the fastest evolving and most diverse components of genomes. Large numbers of nucleotide-binding, leucine-rich repeat (NLR) genes are found in plant genomes and are required for disease resistance. However, NLRs can trigger autoimmunity, disrupt beneficial microbiota or reduce fitness. It is therefore crucial to understand how NLRs are controlled. Here we show that the RNA-binding protein FPA mediates widespread premature cleavage and polyadenylation of NLR transcripts, thereby controlling their functional expression and impacting immunity. Using long-read Nanopore direct RNA sequencing, we resolved the complexity of NLR transcript processing and gene annotation. Our results uncover a co-transcriptional layer of NLR control with implications for understanding the regulatory and evolutionary dynamics of NLRs in the immune responses of plants.
Data availability
IVI-MS data is available from the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository with the dataset identifier PXD022684. FPA and Pol II ChIP-Seq data is available from ENA accession PRJNA449914. Col-0 nanopore DRS data is available from ENA accession PRJEB32782. fpa-8 and 35S::FPA:YFP nanopore DRS data is available from ENA accession PRJEB41451. hen2-2 nanopore DRS data is available from ENA accession PRJEB41381. Col-0, fpa-8 and 35S::FPA:YFP Helicos DRS data is available from Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4309752 ahead of submission to ENA. Col-0, fpa-8 and 35S::FPA:YFP Illumina RNA-Seq data is available from ENA accession PRJEB41455.
Article and author information
Author details
Vasiliki Zacharaki
Geoffrey John Barton
Gordon Grant Simpson
Funding
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/M010066/1)
- Geoffrey John Barton
- Gordon Grant Simpson
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/J00247X/1)
- Geoffrey John Barton
- Gordon Grant Simpson
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/M004155/1)
- Geoffrey John Barton
- Gordon Grant Simpson
H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (799300)
- Katarzyna Knop
Wellcome (097945/B/11/Z)
- Geoffrey John Barton
- Gordon Grant Simpson
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2021, Parker et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Widespread premature transcription termination of Arabidopsis thaliana NLR genes by the spen protein FPA
eLife 10:e65537.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65537
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