Genomic basis and evolutionary potential for extreme drought adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana

• Published in: Nature ecology & evolution Vol. 2; no. 2; pp. 352 - 358
• Main Authors: Exposito-Alonso, Moises, Vasseur, François, Ding, Wei, Wang, George, Burbano, Hernán A., Weigel, Detlef
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.02.2018; Nature Publishing Group; Nature
• Subjects: 631/181/2474; 704/106/694/2739; Adaptation; Adaptation, Biological; Arabidopsis - growth & development; Arabidopsis thaliana; Biodiversity; Biological and Physical Anthropology; Biological Evolution; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Climate Change; Drought; Drought resistance; Droughts; Ecology; Environment models; Environmental modeling; Evolution; Evolution, Molecular; Evolutionary Biology; Extreme drought; Extreme environments; Genetic diversity; Genetic variance; Genetic Variation; Genome, Plant; Genome-Wide Association Study; Geographical distribution; Global warming; Heterogeneity; Indigenous species; Life Sciences; Models, Biological; Natural selection; Paleontology; Population decline; Populations; Populations and Evolution; Species diversity; Survival; Zoology; GWA; Arabidopsis thaliana; image processing; climate change polygenic adaptation GWA environmental niche models random forest drought Arabidopsis thaliana image processing; drought; polygenic adaptation; environmental niche models; random forest; climate change
• ISSN: 2397-334X; 2397-334X
• DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0423-0

As Earth is currently experiencing dramatic climate change, it is of critical interest to understand how species will respond to it. The chance of a species withstanding climate change is likely to depend on the diversity within the species and, particularly, whether there are sub-populations that are already adapted to extreme environments. However, most predictive studies ignore that species comprise genetically diverse individuals. We have identified genetic variants in Arabidopsis thaliana that are associated with survival of an extreme drought event—a major consequence of global warming. Subsequently, we determined how these variants are distributed across the native range of the species. Genetic alleles conferring higher drought survival showed signatures of polygenic adaptation and were more frequently found in Mediterranean and Scandinavian regions. Using geo-environmental models, we predicted that Central European, but not Mediterranean, populations might lag behind in adaptation by the end of the twenty-first century. Further analyses showed that a population decline could nevertheless be compensated by natural selection acting efficiently over standing variation or by migration of adapted individuals from populations at the margins of the species’ distribution. These findings highlight the importance of within-species genetic heterogeneity in facilitating an evolutionary response to a changing climate. The ability of a species to adapt to climate change depends on its genetic diversity. Here, based on the geographic distribution of genetic variants associated with drought resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana , the authors predict the future genetic maladaptation of Central European populations.