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An inferred fitness consequence map of the rice genome

Abstract

The extent to which sequence variation impacts plant fitness is poorly understood. High-resolution maps detailing the constraint acting on the genome, especially in regulatory sites, would be beneficial as functional annotation of noncoding sequences remains sparse. Here, we present a fitness consequence (fitCons) map for rice (Oryza sativa). We inferred fitCons scores (ρ) for 246 inferred genome classes derived from nine functional genomic and epigenomic datasets, including chromatin accessibility, messenger RNA/small RNA transcription, DNA methylation, histone modifications and engaged RNA polymerase activity. These were integrated with genome-wide polymorphism and divergence data from 1,477 rice accessions and 11 reference genome sequences in the Oryzeae. We found ρ to be multimodal, with ~9% of the rice genome falling into classes where more than half of the bases would probably have a fitness consequence if mutated. Around 2% of the rice genome showed evidence of weak negative selection, frequently at candidate regulatory sites, including a novel set of 1,000 potentially active enhancer elements. This fitCons map provides perspective on the evolutionary forces associated with genome diversity, aids in genome annotation and can guide crop breeding programs.

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Fig. 1: greenINSIGHT scores across different genomic annotations in rice.
Fig. 2: Partitioning and scoring the rice genome for selection (ρ).
Fig. 3: Properties of a subset of the 246 fitCons genome classes.
Fig. 4: Distribution of ρ across the rice genome.
Fig. 5: Proximal upstream chromatin class distribution correlates with downstream gene expression.
Fig. 6: Characterization of three categories of intergenic fitCons classes.

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Data availability

The read data used to generate the ChromHMM model and genomic classes have been deposited at the NCBI SRA (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra) and can be accessed through BioProject ID PRJNA586887. Genome assemblies of O. officinalis and O. australiensis are available from the CoGe CyVerse website (https://genomevolution.org/coge/) with genome IDs id56031 and id56030, respectively. Access to genomic class annotation and INSIGHT scoring of the rice genome is available via a genome browser linked from the project’s website (http://purugganan-genomebrowser.bio.nyu.edu/insightJuly2018/greenInsight.html). All epigenomic data tracks, genome annotations, multiple alignments, conservation scores, fitCons scores and site classes are available for visualization and download on a local installation on the USCSC Genome Browser at http://purugganan-genomebrowser.bio.nyu.edu/cgi-bin/hgTracks?db=Osaj&position=Osaj.1%3A166356–178595, and are also available for download from the NCBI SRA (PRJNA586887). The greenINSIGHT-specific data used to generate the greenINSIGHT online tool are available in the “Additional information, scripts & data” section at http://purugganan-genomebrowser.bio.nyu.edu/insightJuly2018/greenInsight.html. The greenINSIGHT-specific code used to generate the greenINSIGHT online tool, as well as the code described in the Methods, are available in the “Additional information, scripts & data” section at http://purugganan-genomebrowser.bio.nyu.edu/insightJuly2018/greenInsight.html.

Code availability

The greenINSIGHT-specific data used to generate the greenINSIGHT online tool are available in the “Additional information, scripts & data” section at http://purugganan-genomebrowser.bio.nyu.edu/insightJuly2018/greenInsight.html. The greenINSIGHT-specific code used to generate the greenINSIGHT online tool, as well as the code described in the Methods, are available in the “Additional information, scripts & data” section at http://purugganan-genomebrowser.bio.nyu.edu/insightJuly2018/greenInsight.html.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the New York University Center for Genomics and Systems Biology GenCore Facility and the Next Generation Sequencing core at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for sequencing support. We thank O. Wilkins and C. Danko for valuable suggestions relating to the ATAC and PRO-Seq protocols, respectively. This work was supported primarily by a grant from the Zegar Family Foundation (no. A16-0051-004), as well as some support from the National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program (no. IOS-1546218) and NYU Abu Dhabi Research Institute to M.D.P., the National Science Foundation CAREER award (no. MCB-1552455), the US National Institutes of Health (no. R35GM124806) and US Department of Agriculture Hatch Program (no. 1012915) to X.Z., the US National Institutes of Health (no. R35GM127070) to A.S., and fellowships from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Life Sciences Research Foundation (no. GBMF2550.06) to S.C.G. and from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (no. PDF-502464-2017) to Z.J.-L.

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M.D.P. conceived of the study idea. M.D.P., Z.J.-L., A.E.P. and A.S. designed the study. M.D.P. directed the study. Z.J.-L. and X.Z. collected the data, A.E.P., Z.J.-L., J.Y.C., B.G., S.C.G. and M.D.P. analysed the data. Z.J.-L., A.E.P., A.S. and M.D.P. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Michael D. Purugganan.

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Joly-Lopez, Z., Platts, A.E., Gulko, B. et al. An inferred fitness consequence map of the rice genome. Nat. Plants 6, 119–130 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0589-3

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