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Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Testing the Role of Multicopy Plasmids in the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance
Published on: May 2, 2018
Convergent evolution of disease resistance genes
1Department of Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science, Fralin Biotechnology Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0346, USA. johnmcd@vt.edu
Abstract:
The resistance genes Rpg1-b in soybean and RPM1 in Arabidopsis recognize the same bacterial avirulence protein (AvrB). Recent map-based cloning of Rpg1-b has provided the first opportunity to compare functionally analogous R genes in distantly related species. Rpg1-b and RPM1 are not orthologs. Rather, these genes descended from distinct evolutionary lineages in which recognition of AvrB has probably evolved independently. This result, together with new insights into RPM1-mediated recognition of AvrB, provides an exciting opportunity to reconsider classical views on the evolution of pathogen recognition specificity.
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