DNA Methylation Can Mediate Local Adaptation and Response to Climate Change in the Clonal Plant Fragaria vesca: Evidence From a European-Scale Reciprocal Transplant Experiment

• Published in: Frontiers in Plant Science
• Main Authors: Sammarco Iris, Münzbergová Zuzana, Latzel Vít
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: adaptation; survival; 5-azacytidine; climate change; latitudinal gradient; clonal plant; epigenetics; Norway; Northern Norway
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6243849; https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.827166

The ongoing climate crisis represents a growing threat for plants and other organisms. However, how and if plants will be able to adapt to future environmental conditions is still debated. One of the most powerful mechanisms allowing plants to tackle the changing climate is phenotypic plasticity, which can be regulated by epigenetic mechanisms. Environmentally induced epigenetic variation mediating phenotypic plasticity might be heritable across (a)sexual generations, thus potentially enabling rapid adaptation to climate change. Here, we assessed whether epigenetic mechanisms, DNA methylation in particular, enable for local adaptation and response to increased and/or decreased temperature of natural populations of a clonal plant, Fragaria vesca (wild strawberry). We collected ramets from three populations along a temperature gradient in each of three countries covering the southern (Italy), central (Czechia), and northern (Norway) edges of the native European range of F. vesca. After clonal propagation and alteration of DNA methylation status of half of the plants via 5-azacytidine, we reciprocally transplanted clones to their home locality and to the other two climatically distinct localities within the country of their origin. At the end of the growing season, we recorded survival and aboveground biomass as fitness estimates. We found evidence for local adaptation in intermediate and cold populations in Italy and maladaptation of plants of the warmest populations in all countries. Plants treated with 5-azacytidine showed either better or worse performance in their local conditions than untreated plants. Application of 5-azacytidine also affected plant response to changed climatic conditions when transplanted to the colder or warmer locality than was their origin, and the response was, however, country-specific. We conclude that the increasing temperature will probably be the limiting factor determining F. vesca survival and distribution. DNA methylation may contribute to local adaptation and response to ...