Conserved features and diversity attributes of chimeric RNAs across accessions in four plants

As a non-collinear expression form of genetic information, chimeric RNAs increase the complexity of transcriptome in diverse organisms. Although chimeric RNAs have been identified in plants, few common features have been revealed. Here, we systemically explored the landscape of chimeric RNAs across multi-accession and multi-tissue using pan-genome and transcriptome data of four plants: rice, maize, soybean, and Arabidopsis. Among the four species, conserved characteristics of breakpoints and parental genes were discovered. In each species, chimeric RNAs displayed a high level of diversity among accessions, and the clustering of accessions using chimeric events was generally concordant with clustering based on genomic variants, implying a general relationship between genetic variations and chimeric RNAs. Through mass spectrometry, we confirmed a fusion protein OsNDC1-OsGID1L2 and observed its subcellular localization, which differed from the original proteins. Phenotypic cues in transgenic rice suggest the potential functions of OsNDC1-OsGID1L2. Moreover, an intriguing chimeric event Os01g0216500-Os01g0216900, generated by a large deletion in basmati rice, also exists in another accession without the deletion, demonstrating its convergence in evolution. Our results illuminate the characteristics and hint at the evolutionary implications of plant chimeric RNAs, which serve as a supplement to genetic variations, thus expanding our understanding of genetic diversity.