Environmental impacts on intraspecific variation in Ambrosia artemisiifolia genome size in Slovakia, Central Europe

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 31; no. 23; pp. 33960 - 33974
• Main Authors: Hrabovský, Michal, Kubalová, Silvia, Mičieta, Karol, Ščevková, Jana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.05.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adaptation; Air temperature; Altitude; Ambrosia - genetics; Ambrosia artemisiifolia; Angiosperms; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Bats; Central European region; Climatic conditions; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental conditions; Environmental factors; Environmental Health; Environmental impact; Flow cytometry; Genetic diversity; genome; Genome Size; Genome, Plant; Genomes; Growth conditions; Hypotheses; intraspecific variation; Introduced species; Invasive species; latitude; longitude; Nonnative species; Phylogenetics; Precipitation; Pressure effects; Research Article; selection pressure; Slovakia; Taxonomy; Temperature; Variation; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Slovakia; Central Europe; Central European region; Flow cytometry; Climatic factors; Geographical variables; Ragweed; Absolute DNA amount
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-024-33410-x
• ISSN: 1614-7499; 0944-1344

The quantity of DNA in angiosperms exhibits variation attributed to many external influences, such as environmental factors, geographical features, or stress factors, which exert constant selection pressure on organisms. Since invasive species possess adaptive capabilities to acclimate to novel environmental conditions, ragweed ( Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) was chosen as a subject for investigating their influence on genome size variation. Slovakia has diverse climatic conditions, suitable for testing the hypothesis that air temperature and precipitation, the main limiting factors of ragweed occurrence, would also have an impact on its genome size. Our results using flow cytometry confirmed this hypothesis and also found a significant association with geographical features such as latitude, altitude, and longitude. We can conclude that plants growing in colder environments farther from oceanic influences exhibit smaller DNA amounts, while optimal growth conditions result in a greater variability in genome size, reflecting the diminished effect of selection pressure.