Pan‐analysis of intra‐ and inter‐species diversity reveals a group of highly variable immune receptor genes in rice

Plant immune receptors and their natural variations play a central role in combating disease-causing pathogens. These immune receptors include intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (LRR) receptors (NLRs) and cell-surface pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that can be further classified as receptor-like proteins (RLPs) and receptor-like kinases (RLKs). Although the NLRome has been characterized, the repertoire and extent of diversity of PRRome remain undetermined in rice. In this study, we examined the diversity of immune receptor genes using high-quality genomes of 309 rice accessions from 8 species within the genus Oryza. A total of 376 310 immune receptor genes were identified, including 149 592 NLR-coding genes and 226 718 PRR coding genes. Shannon entropy analysis revealed a set of immune receptors that display significant intra-species and inter-species diversity in rice. In general, RLPs are more variable than RLKs, while NLRs and LRR-RLPs are more variable than LRR-RLKs. Additionally, NLR and PRR genes exhibit contrasting shoot/root expression patterns, with NLRs generally skewed towards root expression. Furthermore, we found that the size of the LRR-RLK gene families correlates with local annual precipitation, suggesting a stronger selection pressure on LRR-RLK genes in rice accessions grown under wet conditions than dry conditions. In sum, this pan-genomic analysis not only reveals the extensive diversity of the immune receptor repertoires in rice but also provides potential target genes for improving disease resistance in rice.