Abstract
BackgroundThe evolutionary basis of reproductive success in different environments is of major interest in the study of plant adaptation. Since the reproductive stage is particularly sensitive to drought, genes affecting reproductive success during this stage are key players in the evolution of adaptive mechanisms. We used an ecological genomics approach to investigate the reproductive response of drought-tolerant and sensitive wild barley accessions originating from different habitats in the Levant.ResultsWe sequenced mRNA extracted from spikelets at the flowering stage in drought-treated and control plants. The barley genome was used for a reference-guided assembly and differential expression analysis. Our approach enabled to detect biological processes affecting grain production under drought stress. We detected novel candidate genes and differentially expressed alleles associated with drought tolerance. Drought associated genes were shown to be more conserved than non-associated genes, and drought-tolerance genes were found to evolve more rapidly than other drought associated genes.ConclusionsWe show that reproductive success under drought stress is not a habitat-specific trait but a shared physiological adaptation that appeared to evolve recently in the evolutionary history of wild barley. Exploring the genomic basis of reproductive success under stress in crop wild progenitors is expected to have considerable ecological and economical applications.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-015-0528-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The evolutionary basis of reproductive success in different environments is of major interest in the study of plant adaptation
We addressed three objectives: (i) to phenotypically discriminate between drought-tolerant and sensitive accessions with respect to reproductive success (RS) under terminal drought stress, (ii) to detect differentially expressed genes associated with drought tolerance, and (iii) to investigate ecological and evolutionary aspects of drought responsive genes in wild barley originating from different eco-geographical regions in Israel
A common-garden experiment with these accessions was conducted in a greenhouse during the winter of 2010 to evaluate their reproductive success under terminal drought treatment (Fig. 1, Additional file 1: Figure S1 A,B)
Summary
The evolutionary basis of reproductive success in different environments is of major interest in the study of plant adaptation. Since the reproductive stage is sensitive to drought, genes affecting reproductive success during this stage are key players in the evolution of adaptive mechanisms. We used an ecological genomics approach to investigate the reproductive response of drought-tolerant and sensitive wild barley accessions originating from different habitats in the Levant. Wild barley occurs in different habitats along the Fertile Crescent including extreme desert environments where it is frequently found in large stands of stable populations [6]. The ability to survive and reproduce under variable and unfavorable environmental conditions is an important fitness component of individual plants [8]. The ability to tolerate unfavorable environmental conditions such as drought during reproductive development is a key component of plant RS [14]
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