Abstract
Natural variations help in identifying genetic mechanisms of morphologically and developmentally complex traits. Mountainous habitats provide an altitudinal gradient where one species encounters different abiotic conditions. We report the study of 341 individuals of Arabidopsis thaliana derived from 30 natural populations not belonging to the 1001 genomes, collected at increasing altitudes, between 200 and 1800 m in the Pyrenees. Class III peroxidases and ribosomal RNA sequences were used as markers to determine the putative genetic relationships among these populations along their altitudinal gradient. Using Bayesian-based statistics and phylogenetic analyses, these Pyrenean populations appear with significant divergence from the other regional accessions from 1001 genome (i.e., from north Spain or south France). Individuals of these populations exhibited varying phenotypic changes, when grown at sub-optimal temperature (22 vs. 15°C). These phenotypic variations under controlled conditions reflected intraspecific morphological variations. This study could bring new information regarding the west European population structure of A. thaliana and its phenotypic variations at different temperatures. The integrative analysis combining genetic, phenotypic variation and environmental datasets is used to analyze the acclimation of population in response to temperature changes. Regarding their geographical proximity and environmental diversity, these populations represent a tool of choice for studying plant response to temperature variation.HIGHLIGHTS-Studying the natural diversity of A. thaliana in the Pyrenees mountains helps to understand European population structure and to evaluate the phenotypic trait variation in response to climate change.
Highlights
Plant diversity represents a huge reservoir of variations maintained by different evolutionary processes, such as natural or artificial selection
Climate PC1 is strongly associated with most variables, while climate PC2 is only associated with the atypical climatic profile of Sha (Supplementary Figure S4A)
Climate PC1 value obtained from normed Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of six environmental datasets, allows classifying populations as a function of their environmental conditions considering altitude levels: population of plain, medium and high altitudes
Summary
Plant diversity represents a huge reservoir of variations maintained by different evolutionary processes, such as natural or artificial selection. Analysing natural variation in wild species could help to understand plant adaptation to specific natural environments from an ecological and evolutionary point of view (Mitchell-Olds and Schmitt, 2006). With altitudinal gradients, plants must cope with multiple environmental variations including the decrease of temperatures and air humidity, the increase of UV radiation and a diminution of atmospheric pressure with rising altitudes (Körner, 2007). In response to such climatic variations, plants must tightly regulate their physiological processes and modify their phenotypic traits. The rosette and stem growth parameters as well as chlorophyll and anthocyanin contents can be used to illustrate plant responses (Duruflé et al, 2017)
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