article · New Phytologist
This research explores how the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana adapts to environmental stresses across different mountain ranges. By testing diverse ecotypes under alpine conditions such as low carbon dioxide, intense light, and night freezing, the study assessed physical traits and mapped associated genomic regions. The findings show that adaptations vary significantly by geography rather than following a single global rule. For example, Western Mediterranean plants shifted from low water use efficiency and early flowering at low elevations to high water use efficiency and late flowering at high elevations, whereas Central Asian plants showed the opposite trend. Candidate genes and quantitative trait loci differed by region, and trait patterns vanished when analysed on a global scale. Additionally, high-elevation East African plants displayed higher antioxidant activity during freezing conditions. Overall, understanding plant adaptation requires focusing on regional rather than global contexts.
Understanding how wild plants adapt to harsh alpine conditions helps scientists grasp the genetic basis of stress resilience. The discovery that different populations develop entirely different evolutionary solutions to the same environmental challenges suggests that conservationists and agricultural researchers must account for regional diversity rather than searching for universal genetic fixes to climate-related stresses.
The abstract does not indicate an application pathway, as it represents fundamental early-stage research into plant genomics and environmental physiology.
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Phenotypic and genomic diversity in Arabidopsis thaliana may be associated with adaptation along its wide elevational range, but it is unclear whether elevational clines are consistent among different mountain ranges. We took a multi-regional view of selection associated with elevation. In a diverse panel of ecotypes, we measured plant traits under alpine stressors (low CO<sub>2</sub> partial pressure, high light, and night freezing) and conducted genome-wide association studies. We found evidence of contrasting locally adaptive regional clines. Western Mediterranean ecotypes showed low water use efficiency (WUE)/early flowering at low elevations to high WUE/late flowering at high elevations. Central Asian ecotypes showed the opposite pattern. We mapped different candidate genes for each region, and some quantitative trait loci (QTL) showed elevational and climatic clines likely maintained by selection. Consistent with regional heterogeneity, trait and QTL clines were evident at regional scales (c. 2000 km) but disappeared globally. Antioxidants and pigmentation rarely showed elevational clines. High elevation east African ecotypes might have higher antioxidant activity under night freezing. Physiological and genomic elevational clines in different regions can be unique, underlining the complexity of local adaptation in widely distributed species, while hindering global trait-environment or genome-environment associations. To tackle the mechanisms of range-wide local adaptation, regional approaches are thus warranted.
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DOI: 10.1111/nph.20138
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