Abstract
Environmentally induced phenotypic plasticity may be a critical component of response to changing environments. We examined local differentiation and adaptive phenotypic plasticity in response to elevated temperature in half-sib lines collected across an elevation gradient for the alpine herb, Wahlenbergia ceracea. Using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP), we found low but significant genetic differentiation between low- and high-elevation seedlings, and seedlings originating from low elevations grew faster and showed stronger temperature responses (more plasticity) than those from medium and high elevations. Furthermore, plasticity was more often adaptive for plants of low-elevation origin and maladaptive for plants of high elevation. With methylation sensitive-AFLP (MS-AFLP), we revealed an increase in epigenetic variation in response to temperature in low-elevation seedlings. Although we did not find significant direct correlations between MS-AFLP loci and phenotypes, our results demonstrate that adaptive plasticity in temperature response to warming varies over fine spatial scales and suggest the involvement of epigenetic mechanisms in this response.
Highlights
Climate change is altering the environments in which all organisms develop
We examined the extent and correlates of adaptive phenotypic plasticity in response to growth temperature in half-sib lines collected across an elevation gradient for the alpine herb, Wahlenbergia ceracea Lothian (Campanulaceae)
The results provide striking evidence of differentiation in trait means and plasticity over small geographic distances and suggest that adaptive plasticity is associated with increased variation in DNA methylation
Summary
Climate change is altering the environments in which all organisms develop. Plant species can respond to these novel conditions through phenotypic plasticity, adapt through natural selection, or migrate to follow conditions to which they are adapted. The amount of variation in natural populations for traits that will be critical in future climates is generally unknown (Davis and Shaw 2001; Parmesan 2006) and understanding trait response, both phenotypic and genetic, will be critical for predicting how organisms will respond to novel abiotic conditions (Parmesan 2006). Predicting these responses to environmental changes will require an understanding of the environmentally induced variation in the phenotype of individuals (phenotypic plasticity) and the molecular mechanisms underlying those responses (Nicotra et al 2010). In which fitness is regressed against trait plasticity, provide a tool to assess the adaptive value of a plastic response (van Kleunen et al 2000; Stinchcombe et al 2004)
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