Universität zu Köln

Glander, Shirin, He, Fei, Schmitz, Gregor, Witten, Anika, Telschow, Arndt and de Meaux, Juliette ORCID: 0000-0002-2942-4750 (2018). Assortment of Flowering Time and Immunity Alleles in Natural Arabidopsis thaliana Populations Suggests Immunity and Vegetative Lifespan Strategies Coevolve. Genome Biol. Evol., 10 (9). S. 2278 - 2292. OXFORD: OXFORD UNIV PRESS. ISSN 1759-6653

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Abstract

The selective impact of pathogen epidemics on host defenses can be strong but remains transient. By contrast, life-history shifts can durably and continuously modify the balance between costs and benefits of immunity, which arbitrates the evolution of host defenses. Their impact on the evolutionary dynamics of host immunity, however, has seldom been documented. Optimal investment into immunity is expected to decrease with shortening lifespan, because a shorter life decreases the probability to encounter pathogens or enemies. Here, we document that in natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana, the expression levels of immunity genes correlate positively with flowering time, which in annual species is a proxy for lifespan. Using a novel genetic strategy based on bulk-segregants, we partitioned flowering time-dependent from -independent immunity genes and could demonstrate that this positive covariation can be genetically separated. It is therefore not explained by the pleiotropic action of some major regulatory genes controlling both immunity and lifespan. Moreover, we find that immunity genes containing variants reported to impact fitness in natural field conditions are among the genes whose expression covaries most strongly with flowering time. Taken together, these analyses reveal that natural selection has likely assorted alleles promoting lower expression of immunity genes with alleles that decrease the duration of vegetative lifespan in A. thaliana and vice versa. This is the first study documenting a pattern of variation consistent with the impact that selection on flowering time is predicted to have on diversity in host immunity.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Glander, Shirin UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED He, Fei UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Schmitz, Gregor UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Witten, Anika UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Telschow, Arndt UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED de Meaux, Juliette UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-2942-4750 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-174303
DOI:	10.1093/gbe/evy124
Journal or Publication Title:	Genome Biol. Evol.
Volume:	10
Number:	9
Page Range:	S. 2278 - 2292
Date:	2018
Publisher:	OXFORD UNIV PRESS
Place of Publication:	OXFORD
ISSN:	1759-6653
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences > Department of Biology > Botanical Institute
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language AGE-RELATED RESISTANCE; FALSE DISCOVERY RATE; TRADE-OFF; RED QUEEN; EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS; DEFENSE RESPONSES; PLANT IMMUNITY; HISTORY; SELECTION; ADAPTATION Multiple languages Evolutionary Biology; Genetics & Heredity Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/17430