Dynamics of disease resistance polymorphism at the Rpm1 locus of Arabidopsis

Eli A. Stahl, Greg Dwyer, Rodney Mauricio, Martin Kreitman and Joy Bergelson ()
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Eli A. Stahl: University of Chicago
Greg Dwyer: University of Chicago
Rodney Mauricio: University of Chicago
Martin Kreitman: University of Chicago
Joy Bergelson: University of Chicago

Nature, 1999, vol. 400, issue 6745, 667-671

Abstract: Abstract The co-evolutionary ‘arms race’1 is a widely accepted model for the evolution of host–pathogen interactions. This model predicts that variation for disease resistance will be transient, and that host populations generally will be monomorphic at disease-resistance (R -gene) loci. However, plant populations show considerable polymorphism at R -gene loci involved in pathogen recognition2. Here we have tested the arms-race model in Arabidopsis thaliana by analysing sequences flanking Rpm1, a gene conferring the ability to recognize Pseudomonas pathogens carrying AvrRpm1 orAvrB (ref. 3). We reject the arms-race hypothesis: resistance andsusceptibility alleles at this locus have co-existed for millions of years. To account for the age of alleles and the relative levels ofpolymorphism within allelic classes, we use coalescence theory to model the long-term accumulation of nucleotide polymorphism in the context of the short-term ecological dynamics of disease resistance. This analysis supports a ‘trench warfare’ hypothesis, inwhich advances and retreats of resistance-allele frequency maintain variation for disease resistance as a dynamic polymorphism4,5.

Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1038/23260

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