The adaptive landscape of the miR482 gene family in tomato is rugged
- 1Institute of Population Genetics, Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf , ,
Abstract
MicroRNA genes are important regulators of development and disease resistance in plants. Successful miR:target interactions rely on high sequence complementarity, usually permitting few to no mismatches. Exploring the concept of an adaptive landscape, we investigated how individual nucleotide changes in the miR482 gene family may alter the targeted repertoire of disease resistance gene ( R -genes) in tomato. We predicted the target scores for all mutants accessible through individual point mutations in silico and compared them to the target scores of the original miR482 genes. Most mutations lead to a loss of targeting or lower likelihood of targeting. Only a few mutants showed improved target scores or gained new R -gene targets. Our results indicate that the miR482 genes may be optimized for targeting of their current R -gene repertoire. This suggests that the miR482 genes experience natural selection to maintain their current target repertoire and that the adaptive landscape is relatively peaked or rugged. This study has implications for understanding the adaptive process governing gene regulation in plants and the design of new miR:target pairs for generating novel, beneficial plant phenotypes.
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BibTeX
@article{nicolai2026adaptive,
title = {{The adaptive landscape of the miR482 gene family in tomato is rugged}},
author = {Jessica Nicolai and Laura E. Rose},
journal = {Frontiers in plant science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpls.2026.1884466},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13668569},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The adaptive landscape of the miR482 gene family in tomato is rugged
AU - Jessica Nicolai
AU - Laura E. Rose
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Frontiers in plant science
DO - 10.3389/fpls.2026.1884466
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13668569
AB - MicroRNA genes are important regulators of development and disease resistance in plants. Successful miR:target interactions rely on high sequence complementarity, usually permitting few to no mismatches. Exploring the concept of an adaptive landscape, we investigated how individual nucleotide changes in the miR482 gene family may alter the targeted repertoire of disease resistance gene ( R -genes) in tomato. We predicted the target scores for all mutants accessible through individual point mutations in silico and compared them to the target scores of the original miR482 genes. Most mutations lead to a loss of targeting or lower likelihood of targeting. Only a few mutants showed improved target scores or gained new R -gene targets. Our results indicate that the miR482 genes may be optimized for targeting of their current R -gene repertoire. This suggests that the miR482 genes experience natural selection to maintain their current target repertoire and that the adaptive landscape is relatively peaked or rugged. This study has implications for understanding the adaptive process governing gene regulation in plants and the design of new miR:target pairs for generating novel, beneficial plant phenotypes.
SN - 1664-462X
ER -