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Genetic diversity, predictive protein structures, and interaction networks of Cysteine-Rich Receptor-Like Kinases in Arabidopsis thaliana
Open accessPreprint — published as 10.34133/csbj.0043 · Paper page
Abstract
Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (CRKs) are a large subfamily of plant receptor-like kinases (RLKs) implicated in immunity and development, yet their ligands, interaction partners, and mechanistic roles remain poorly defined. We combined population-genetic analyses and AlphaFold-based structural prediction to characterise the Arabidopsis thaliana CRK family. Phylogenetic reconstruction from 69 natural accessions resolved five well-supported CRK clades. Nucleotide diversity (π) and neutrality tests revealed heterogeneous diversity across loci, with evidence of both positive and negative selection pressure acting on different CRKs. AlphaFold models of CRK extracellular domains (ECDs) recapitulate the DUF26 structure observed in Plasmodesmata Localizing Protein (PDLP)5/PDLP8 and ginkbilobin-2 but display distinct biochemical properties and disulfide-bond topologies. Pairwise AlphaFold dimer modelling of all 780 CRK-ECD combinations produced 145 high-confidence interaction models; ∼78% of these adopt a shared dimer conformation characterized by an extended intermolecular β-sheet at the interface. Integrating evolutionary and structural approaches reveals clade-specific selective regimes and conserved structural features of CRK ECDs that likely underpin receptor–receptor interactions. Predicted high-confidence dimer interfaces suggest a general mode of CRK-ECD association that can guide targeted biochemical and genetic validation, accelerating functional dissection of this important receptor family.
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![Fig. 2. Structural alignments of predicted CRK–ECDs and their homologs. (A) Structure alignment of PDLP5 (brown, PDB: 6GRE [9]) to the predicted CRK42–ECD (pink, Group I). Group I CRKs are most similar to PDLPs, including 12 conserved cysteines (marked in orange). Structure alignment of GNK2 (brown, PDB: 4XRE [20]) to the predicted models of (B) CRK42–ECD (pink, Group I) and CRK8–ECD (teal, Group V) DUF26-A and (C) CRK42–ECD and CRK8–ECD DUF26-B. Mannose is indicated in green. The 3 residues involved in mannose-binding by GNK2 (N11, R93, and E104) and the respective AA in a similar position in the CRKs are represented as sticks.](/paper-figures/f26296ad45fe4ee5852d5453a222696d/genetic-diversity-predictive-protein-structures-and-interaction-networks-of-figure-2.jpg)




![Fig. 7. Properties of the various CRK–ECD interaction interfaces. (A) Seventy-two percent of CRK–ECD pairs have a predicted dimer interface on the β-strand of DUF26-B of both ECDs. In most Standard orientation models, the DUF26-A domains remain further apart. Dimer model shows CRK13–CRK28 (Group IV and Group II). (B) In a small subset, DUF26-A is also predicted to be in close proximity. Dimer model shows CRK27–CRK31 (Group II and Group IV). (C) Zoomed-in view of the DUF26-B β-strand interaction shown in (B). The β-strands mainly form hydrogen bonds through the amino acid backbone. (D) Amino acid sequence alignment of the interface β-strand. The residues in the interface are not conserved but are more hydrophobic. (E) Surface charge predictions of 3 models of CRK–ECD dimer pairs (CRK13–CRK28 [Group IV–Group II], CRK27–CRK31 [Group II–Group IV], and CRK10–CRK11 [Group V–Group IV]) show surface charge patches surrounding and inside the interface. Surface charge electrostatic potential ranges from −5 kJ/mol/e (red) to 5 kJ/mol/e (blue) [97]. APBS electrostatics was used in PyMOL to generate the maps. (F) CRK18–CRK18 pair (Group IV) showcasing the proximity of the vicinal disulfides to each other in the dimer. (Vicinal) disulfides are marked in orange.](/paper-figures/192dfb6b706649ddbb9f3f84b4bd0635/genetic-diversity-predictive-protein-structures-and-interaction-networks-of-figure-7.jpg)
![Fig. 8. Interaction network of CRK–ECD AF predicted dimers. (A) The 145 AF CRK–ECD dimer predictions that passed our cutoffs were used to generate an interaction network. Each number represents a CRK–ECD, and the colored circles or nodes correspond to the phylogenetic group to which the CRK belongs. The node size corresponds to the number of interactions a CRK has. A light gray outline of the node indicates homodimerization. Lines connecting nodes indicate heterodimers. Communities of interconnected CRKs, as identified with the WalkTrap algorithm [33], are marked by a yellow background and are numbered I, II, and III. (B) Interaction networks refined using expression data of CRKs in seedlings and senescent plants from TravaDB [35]. (C) Interaction networks refined using expression data from Bjornson et al. [34] of CRKs in mock-treated seedlings or seedlings treated with 1 μM flg22 for 90 min.](/paper-figures/18b4d7ac33614ac9a5ad49c95ef35c54/genetic-diversity-predictive-protein-structures-and-interaction-networks-of-figure-8.jpg)
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Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
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Metadata
- Authors
- Stouthamer, J., Pereira, D., Martin-Ramirez, S., Mutte, S., Mott, G. A., & Smakowska-Luzan, E.
- Affiliations
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
- University of Toronto Scarborough (CA)
- Venue
- Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal
- Publisher
- openRxiv
- Published
- 2025-11-29
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 0043-0043
- ISSN
- 2001-0370 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC13058244
- OpenAlex
- W7137929205
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2
- FWCI
- 7.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- NWO Talent Programme (Vidi grant VI.Vidi.193.074)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery Grant Award (RGPIN-2019-06395))
- OVPRI International Research Fund at the University of Toronto Scarborough
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Plant Molecular Biology Research
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Structure and Dynamics
- Keywords
- cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases, Arabidopsis thaliana, genetic diversity, extracellular domain structure, protein dimerization, receptor-receptor interactions, positive and negative selection, phylogenetic clades, plant immunity, population genetics
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