Clinal population divergence in an adaptive parental environmental effect that adjusts seed banking

Lampei, Christian; Metz, Johannes; Tielbӧrger, Katja

doi:10.1111/nph.14436

Cited by 45 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 83 publications

(121 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In sessile organisms like plants, local adaptation along environmental gradients, such as aridity or temperature gradients, may lead to clinal trait variation. For example, seed dormancy increases linearly with decreasing rainfall in many annual dryland species (Hacker, 1984;Hacker & Ratcliff, 1989;Kronholm, Picó, Alonso-Blanco, Goudet, & De, 2012;Lampei, Metz, & Tielbörger, 2017;Tielbörger, Petruů, & Lampei, 2012;Volis, Mendlinger, & Ward, 2002;Wagmann et al, 2012). Mostly, environmental gradients result from geographical or geological conditions (e.g., elevation differences or rain shadow) that influence local climatic conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microclimate predicts frost hardiness of alpineArabidopsis thalianapopulations better than elevation

Lampei

Wunder

Wilhalm

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In mountain regions, topological differences on the microscale can strongly affect microclimate and may counteract the average effects of elevation, such as decreasing temperatures. While these interactions are well understood, their effect on plant adaptation is understudied.We investigated winter frost hardiness of Arabidopsis thaliana accessions originating from 13 sites along altitudinal gradients in the Southern Alps during three winters on an experimental field station on the Swabian Jura and compared levels of frost damage with the observed number of frost days and the lowest temperature in eight collection sites.We found that frost hardiness increased with elevation in a log‐linear fashion. This is consistent with adaptation to a higher frequency of frost conditions, but also indicates a decreasing rate of change in frost hardiness with increasing elevation. Moreover, the number of frost days measured with temperature loggers at the collection sites correlated much better with frost hardiness than the elevation of collection sites, suggesting that populations were adapted to their local microclimate. Notably, the variance in frost days across sites increased exponentially with elevation. Together, our results suggest that strong microclimate heterogeneity of high alpine environments can preserve functional genetic diversity among small populations.Synthesis: Here, we tested how plant populations differed in their adaptation to frost exposure along an elevation gradient and whether microsite temperatures improve the prediction of frost hardiness. We found that local temperatures, particularly the number of frost days, are a better predictor of the frost hardiness of plants than elevation. This reflects a substantial variance in frost frequency between sites at similar high elevations. We conclude that high mountain regions harbor microsites that differ in their local microclimate and thereby can preserve a high functional genetic diversity among them. Therefore, high mountain regions have the potential to function as a refugium in times of global change.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microclimate predicts frost hardiness of alpineArabidopsis thalianapopulations better than elevation

Lampei

Wunder

Wilhalm

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Overall demethylation may lead to disruption of the balanced methylation-phenotype link underlying optimal phenotypes under given conditions. The potential epigenetic effects, such as transgenerational plasticity, are also known to strongly vary between genotypes (Becker and Weigel 2012, Lampei et al 2017, Groot et al 2017). Hence, we need experimental studies directly demonstrating the importance of heritable epigenetic variation for species phenotypic response to different climates that consider also genetic control of the epigenetic mechanisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA methylation as a possible mechanism affecting ability of natural populations to adapt to changing climate

Münzbergová

Latzel

Šurinová

et al. 2018

Oikos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Environmentally induced epigenetic variation has been recently recognized as a possible mechanism allowing plants to rapidly adapt to novel conditions. Despite increasing evidence on the topic, little is known on how epigenetic variation affects responses of natural populations to changing climate. We studied the effects of experimental demethylation (DNA methylation is an important mediator of heritable control of gene expression) on performance of a clonal grass, Festuca rubra, coming from localities with contrasting temperature and moisture regimes. We compared performance of demethylated and control plants from different populations under two contrasting climatic scenarios and explored whether the response to demethylation depended on genetic relatedness of the plants. Demethylation significantly affected plant performance. Its effects interacted with population of origin and partly with conditions of cultivation. The effects of demethylation also varied between distinct genotypes with more closely related genotypes showing more similar response to demethylation. For belowground biomass, demethylated plants showed signs of adaptation to drought that were not apparent in plants that were naturally methylated. The results suggest that DNA methylation may modify the response of this species to moisture. DNA methylation may thus affect the ability of clonal plants to adapt to novel climatic conditions. Whether this variation in DNA methylation may also occur under natural conditions, however, remains to be explored. Despite the significant interactions between population of origin and demethylation, our data do not provide clear evidence that DNA methylation enabled adaptation to different environments. In fact, we obtained stronger evidence of local adaptation in demethylated than in naturally‐methylated plants. As changes in DNA methylation may be quite dynamic, it is thus possible that epigenetic variation can mask plant adaptations to conditions of their origin due to pre‐cultivation of the plants under standardized conditions. This possibility should be considered in future experiments exploring plant adaptations.

show abstract

“…For example, in annual species of Israel, seed dormancy varies along a cline in aridity and precipitation variability consistent with adaptive bet hedging (Tielborger et al, 2012). Moreover, in those same species, the relative strength of parental effects on germination also corresponded with the cline in aridity and precipitation variability (Lampei et al, 2017). Our experiments used wild-collected seed from our study populations, so we cannot distinguish the contributions of genetic divergence and transgenerational plasticity across sites.…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…On the other hand, traits that enhance germination in response to reliable environmental cues, such as temperature and precipitation, can act to time germination with favorable conditions, and these traits define the conditions under which germination will proceed. The adaptive value of these traits (bet hedging and germination cueing) depends on the time scale of variation and the reliability of environmental cues (Cohen, 1967;Donaldson-Matasci et al, 2013;Botero et al, 2015), and observed germination strategies likely reflect past selection for bet hedging, germination cueing, or both (Donohue et al, 2010;Lampei and Tielborger, 2010;Gremer et al, 2016;Lampei et al, 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The clinal population variation we found in germination traits suggests that the germination niche may be involved in local adaptation to elevation and climate. However, dormancy and germination traits can also be strongly influenced by the parental environment, and such transgenerational plasticity may itself have adaptive value (Galloway and Etterson, 2007;Springthorpe and Penfield, 2015;Auge et al, 2017;Lampei et al, 2017;Wadgymar et al, 2018). Thus, potentially adaptive phenotypic differences among populations may reflect transgenerational plasticity to local parental environments as well as local adaptation in response to natural selection.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Variation in the seasonal germination niche across an elevational gradient: the role of germination cueing in current and future climates

Gremer

Chiono

Suglia

et al. 2020

American J of Botany

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Premise The timing of germination has profound impacts on fitness, population dynamics, and species ranges. Many plants have evolved responses to seasonal environmental cues to time germination with favorable conditions; these responses interact with temporal variation in local climate to drive the seasonal climate niche and may reflect local adaptation. Here, we examined germination responses to temperature cues in Streptanthus tortuosus populations across an elevational gradient. Methods Using common garden experiments, we evaluated differences among populations in response to cold stratification (chilling) and germination temperature and related them to observed germination phenology in the field. We then explored how these responses relate to past climate at each site and the implications of those patterns under future climate change. Results Populations from high elevations had stronger stratification requirements for germination and narrower temperature ranges for germination without stratification. Differences in germination responses corresponded with elevation and variability in seasonal temperature and precipitation across populations. Further, they corresponded with germination phenology in the field; low‐elevation populations germinated in the fall without chilling, whereas high‐elevation populations germinated after winter chilling and snowmelt in spring and summer. Climate‐change forecasts indicate increasing temperatures and decreasing snowpack, which will likely alter germination cues and timing, particularly for high‐elevation populations. Conclusions The seasonal germination niche for S. tortuosus is highly influenced by temperature and varies across the elevational gradient. Climate change will likely affect germination timing, which may cascade to influence trait expression, fitness, and population persistence.

show abstract

Clinal population divergence in an adaptive parental environmental effect that adjusts seed banking

Cited by 45 publications

References 83 publications

Microclimate predicts frost hardiness of alpineArabidopsis thalianapopulations better than elevation

Microclimate predicts frost hardiness of alpineArabidopsis thalianapopulations better than elevation

DNA methylation as a possible mechanism affecting ability of natural populations to adapt to changing climate

Variation in the seasonal germination niche across an elevational gradient: the role of germination cueing in current and future climates

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About