Genetic variation, environment and demography intersect to shape Arabidopsis defense metabolite variation across Europe
- University of California, Davis, United States
- Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
- Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Germany
- University of Missouri, United States
Abstract
Plants produce diverse metabolites to cope with the challenges presented by complex and ever-changing environments. These challenges drive the diversification of specialized metabolites within and between plant species. However, we are just beginning to understand how frequently new alleles arise controlling specialized metabolite diversity and how the geographic distribution of these alleles may be structured by ecological and demographic pressures. Here we measure the variation in specialized metabolites across a population of 797 natural Arabidopsis thaliana accessions. We show a combination of geography, environmental parameters, demography, and different genetic processes all combine to influence the specific chemotypes and their distribution. This showed that causal loci in specialized metabolism contain frequent independently generated alleles with patterns suggesting potential within species convergence. This provides a new perspective about the complexity of the selective forces and mechanisms that shape the generation and distribution of allelic variation that may influence local adaptation.
Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.
-
1,135 Genomes Reveal the Global Pattern of Polymorphism in Arabidopsis thalianaPMCID: PMC4949382, 1001 genomes.
-
Phenotypic and genome-wide association with the local environment of ArabidopsisAraCLIM, https://github.com/CLIMtools/AraCLIM.
Article and author information
Author details
Daniel J Kliebenstein
Funding
National Science Foundation (MCB 1906486)
- Daniel J Kliebenstein
United States - Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (FI-560-2017)
- Ella Katz
- Daniel J Kliebenstein
National Science Foundation (IOS 1655810)
- Daniel J Kliebenstein
National Science Foundation (IOS 1754201)
- Ruthie Angelovici
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Meredith C Schuman, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Version history
- Received: February 23, 2021
- Accepted: May 2, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: May 5, 2021 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: June 15, 2021 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2021, Katz et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 3,815
- views
-
- 484
- downloads
-
- 33
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Genetic variation, environment and demography intersect to shape Arabidopsis defense metabolite variation across Europe
eLife 10:e67784.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.67784
Further reading
-
- Ecology
Bathymodioline mussels dominate deep-sea methane seep and hydrothermal vent habitats and obtain nutrients and energy primarily through chemosynthetic endosymbiotic bacteria in the bacteriocytes of their gill. However, the molecular mechanisms that orchestrate mussel host–symbiont interactions remain unclear. Here, we constructed a comprehensive cell atlas of the gill in the mussel Gigantidas platifrons from the South China Sea methane seeps (1100 m depth) using single-nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) and whole-mount in situ hybridisation. We identified 13 types of cells, including three previously unknown ones, and uncovered unknown tissue heterogeneity. Every cell type has a designated function in supporting the gill’s structure and function, creating an optimal environment for chemosynthesis, and effectively acquiring nutrients from the endosymbiotic bacteria. Analysis of snRNA-seq of in situ transplanted mussels clearly showed the shifts in cell state in response to environmental oscillations. Our findings provide insight into the principles of host–symbiont interaction and the bivalves' environmental adaption mechanisms.
-
- Ecology
Predator-prey arms races have led to the evolution of finely tuned disguise strategies. While the theoretical benefits of predator camouflage are well established, no study has yet been able to quantify its consequences for hunting success in natural conditions. We used high-resolution movement data to quantify how barn owls (Tyto alba) conceal their approach when using a sit-and-wait strategy. We hypothesized that hunting barn owls would modulate their landing force, potentially reducing noise levels in the vicinity of prey. Analysing 87,957 landings by 163 individuals equipped with GPS tags and accelerometers, we show that barn owls reduce their landing force as they approach their prey, and that landing force predicts the success of the following hunting attempt. Landing force also varied with the substrate, being lowest on man-made poles in field boundaries. The physical environment, therefore, affects the capacity for sound camouflage, providing an unexpected link between predator-prey interactions and land use. Finally, hunting strike forces in barn owls were the highest recorded in any bird, relative to body mass, highlighting the range of selective pressures that act on landings and the capacity of these predators to modulate their landing force. Overall, our results provide the first measurements of landing force in a wild setting, revealing a new form of motion-induced sound camouflage and its link to hunting success.
