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Disease resistance: Not so costly after all

Nature Plants volume 2, Article number: 16121 (2016) Cite this article

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The fitness costs of individual resistance (R) genes detected in previous studies suggest an impossibly high genetic load associated with disease resistance, if true for all R genes. However, new research shows that Arabidopsis plants with resistant Rps2 are no less fit than those with a susceptible Rps2 allele in the absence of disease.

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Figure 1: Red Queen dynamics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biosciences, Anna-Liisa Laine is at the Centre of Excellence in Metapopulation Research, Plant Biology, University of Helsinki FI-00014, Finland.,

    Anna-Liisa Laine

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  1. Anna-Liisa Laine
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Correspondence to Anna-Liisa Laine.

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Laine, AL. Disease resistance: Not so costly after all. Nature Plants 2, 16121 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.121

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.121

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