Divergent flowering responses to increasing temperatures are associated
with transcriptome plasticity and epigenetic modification differences at
FLC promoter region of Arabidopsis thaliana
Abstract
Understanding the genetic, and transcriptomic changes that drive the
phenotypic plasticity of fitness traits is a central question in
evolutionary biology. In this study, we utilised 152 natural Swedish
Arabidopsis thaliana accessions with re-sequenced genomes,
transcriptomes, and methylomes and measured flowering times under two
temperature conditions (10 °C and 16 °C) to address this question. We
revealed that the northern accessions exhibited advanced flowering in
response to decreased temperature, whereas the southern accessions
delayed their flowering, indicating a divergent flowering response. This
contrast in flowering responses was associated with the isothermality of
their native ranges, which potentially enables the northern accessions
to complete their life cycle more rapidly in years with shorter growth
seasons. At the transcriptome level, we observed extensive rewiring of
gene co-expression networks, with the expression of 25 core genes being
associated with the mean flowering time and its plastic variation.
Notably, variations in FLC expression sensitivity between northern and
southern accessions were found to be associated with the divergence
flowering time response. Further analysis suggests that FLC expression
sensitivity is associated with differences in CG, CHG and CHH
methylation at the promoter region. Overall, our study revealed the
association between transcriptome plasticity and flowering time
plasticity among different accessions, providing evidence for its
relevance in ecological adaptation. These findings offer deeper insights
into the genetics of rapid responses to environmental changes and
ecological adaptation.