Abstract
Colobanthus quitensis is one of the two vascular plants inhabiting the Antarctic. In natural habitats, it grows in the form of a cushion or mats, commonly observed in high latitudes or alpine vegetation. Although this species has been investigated over many years to study its geographical distribution and physiological adaptations to climate change, very limited genetic information is available. The high-throughput sequencing with a de novo assembly analysis yielded 47,070 contigs with blast-hits. Through the functional classification and enrichment analysis, we identified that photosynthesis and phenylpropanoid pathway genes show differential expression depending on the habitat environment. We found that the known ‘plant core environmental stress response (PCESR)’ genes were abundantly expressed in Antarctic samples, and confirmed that their expression is mainly induced by low-temperature. In addition, we suggest that differential expression of thermomorphogenesis-related genes may contribute to phenotypic plasticity of the plant, for instance, displaying a cushion-like phenotype to adapt to harsh environments.
Highlights
IntroductionDrought, high salinity, and high UV radiation are typical environmental stressors that can damage cellular structures and impair physiological function[1], leading to inhibited photosynthesis, retarded growth and reduced yields in plants[2,3]
Land plants are susceptible to adverse environmental conditions
To investigate the molecular and genetic mechanisms associated with stress tolerance and morphological plasticity due to environmental stress in C. quitensis, we compared the transcriptome profiles between plants inhabiting in Antarctic Barton Peninsula and plants cultivated in the mild growth condition in the laboratory
Summary
Drought, high salinity, and high UV radiation are typical environmental stressors that can damage cellular structures and impair physiological function[1], leading to inhibited photosynthesis, retarded growth and reduced yields in plants[2,3]. To cope with these environmental stressors, plants developed stress resistance strategies, including intracellular physiological and metabolic changes such as increasing membrane fluidity and expression of cytoprotective metabolites by regulating stress signal transduction[1,3,4]. Field studies have shown that the OTC (Open Top Chamber) warming effects affect plant growth by influencing plant morphoanatomical traits, cellular chemical composition, and photosynthetic parameters[17,22] These suggest that the developmental changes induced by temperature determine photosynthetic efficiency. This suggests that the Antarctic ecotype of C. quitensis might have developed a unique stress response mechanism operating at the molecular level to survive in a harsh environment
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