scholarly journals Natural genetic variation in Arabidopsis thaliana defense metabolism genes modulates field fitness

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Kerwin ◽  
Julie Feusier ◽  
Jason Corwin ◽  
Matthew Rubin ◽  
Catherine Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
Natural Variation ◽  
Environmental Heterogeneity ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Insect Communities ◽  
Control Field ◽  
Natural Genetic Variation ◽  
Causal Genes ◽  
Selective Forces

Natural populations persist in complex environments, where biotic stressors, such as pathogen and insect communities, fluctuate temporally and spatially. These shifting biotic pressures generate heterogeneous selective forces that can maintain standing natural variation within a species. To directly test if genes containing causal variation for the Arabidopsis thaliana defensive compounds, glucosinolates (GSL) control field fitness and are therefore subject to natural selection, we conducted a multi-year field trial using lines that vary in only specific causal genes. Interestingly, we found that variation in these naturally polymorphic GSL genes affected fitness in each of our environments but the pattern fluctuated such that highly fit genotypes in one trial displayed lower fitness in another and that no GSL genotype or genotypes consistently out-performed the others. This was true both across locations and within the same location across years. These results indicate that environmental heterogeneity may contribute to the maintenance of GSL variation observed within Arabidopsis thaliana.

scholarly journals Plant trichomes and a single gene GLABRA1 contribute to insect community composition on field-grown Arabidopsis thaliana

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuhiro Sato ◽  
Rie Shimizu-Inatsugi ◽  
Misako Yamazaki ◽  
Kentaro K. Shimizu ◽  
Atsushi J. Nagano
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Natural Variation ◽  
Single Gene ◽  
Insect Community ◽  
Loss Of Function ◽  
Insect Communities ◽  
As Species ◽  
Distant Field ◽  
Diverse Plant

AbstractBackground: Genetic variation in plants alters insect abundance and community structure in the field; however, little is known about the importance of a single gene among diverse plant genotypes. In this context, Arabidopsis trichomes provide an excellent system to discern the roles of natural variation and a key gene, GLABRA1, in shaping insect communities. In this study, we transplanted two independent glabrous mutants (gl1-1 and gl1-2) and 17 natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana to two localities in Switzerland and Japan.Results: Fifteen insect species inhabited plant accessions, with 10–30% broad-sense heritability of community indices being detected, such as species richness and diversity. The total abundance of leaf-chewing herbivores was negatively correlated with trichome density at both the field sites, while glucosinolates had variable effects on leaf chewers between the two sites. Interestingly, there was a parallel tendency for the abundance of leaf chewers to be higher on gl1-1 and gl1-2 than for their different parental accessions, Ler-1 and Col-0, respectively. Furthermore, the loss of function in the GLABRA1 gene significantly decreased the resistance of plants to the two predominant chewers, flea beetles and turnip sawflies.Conclusions: Overall, our results indicate that insect community composition on A. thaliana is heritable across two distant field sites, with GLABRA1 playing a key role in altering the abundance of leaf-chewing herbivores. Given that such a trichome variation is widely observed in Brassicaceae plants, the present study exemplifies the community-wide impact of a single plant gene on crucifer-feeding insects in the field.

scholarly journals Identification and Quantification of Coumarins by UHPLC-MS in Arabidopsis Thaliana Natural Populations

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1804
Author(s):  
Izabela Perkowska ◽  
Joanna Siwinska ◽  
Alexandre Olry ◽  
Jérémy Grosjean ◽  
Alain Hehn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Biological Activities ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Biologically Active ◽  
Stress Factors ◽  
Mass Spectrometry Analysis ◽  
Engineering Research ◽  
Spectrometry Analysis ◽  
Model Plant Arabidopsis Thaliana

Coumarins are phytochemicals occurring in the plant kingdom, which biosynthesis is induced under various stress factors. They belong to the wide class of specialized metabolites well known for their beneficial properties. Due to their high and wide biological activities, coumarins are important not only for the survival of plants in changing environmental conditions, but are of great importance in the pharmaceutical industry and are an active source for drug development. The identification of coumarins from natural sources has been reported for different plant species including a model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. In our previous work, we demonstrated a presence of naturally occurring intraspecies variation in the concentrations of scopoletin and its glycoside, scopolin, the major coumarins accumulating in Arabidopsis roots. Here, we expanded this work by examining a larger group of 28 Arabidopsis natural populations (called accessions) and by extracting and analysing coumarins from two different types of tissues–roots and leaves. In the current work, by quantifying the coumarin content in plant extracts with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a mass spectrometry analysis (UHPLC-MS), we detected a significant natural variation in the content of simple coumarins like scopoletin, umbelliferone and esculetin together with their glycosides: scopolin, skimmin and esculin, respectively. Increasing our knowledge of coumarin accumulation in Arabidopsis natural populations, might be beneficial for the future discovery of physiological mechanisms of action of various alleles involved in their biosynthesis. A better understanding of biosynthetic pathways of biologically active compounds is the prerequisite step in undertaking a metabolic engineering research.

scholarly journals Natural variation in social conditions affects male mate choosiness in the amphipod Gammarus roeselii

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konrad Lipkowski ◽  
Sophie Steigerwald ◽  
Lisa M Schulte ◽  
Carolin Sommer-Trembo ◽  
Jonas Jourdan
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Natural Variation ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Male Mate

Abstract The extent of male mate choosiness is driven by a trade-off between various environmental factors associated with the costs of mate acquisition, quality assessment and opportunity costs. Our knowledge about natural variation in male mate choosiness across different populations of the same species, however, remains limited. In this study, we compared male mate choosiness across 10 natural populations of the freshwater amphipod Gammarus roeselii (Gervais 1835), a species with overall high male mating investments, and evaluated the relative influence of population density and sex ratio (both affecting mate availability) on male mate choosiness. We investigated amplexus establishment after separating mating pairs and presenting focal males with a novel, size-matched female from the same population. Our analysis revealed considerable effects of sex ratio and (to a lesser extent) population density on time until amplexus establishment (choosiness). Male amphipods are able to perceive variable social conditions (e.g., sex ratio) and modify their mating strategy accordingly: We found choosiness to be reduced in increasingly male-biased populations, whereas selectivity increases when sex ratio becomes female biased. With this, our study expands our limited knowledge on natural variations in male mate choosiness and illustrates the importance of sex ratio (i.e., level of competition) for male mating decisions in natural environments. Accounting for variation in sex ratios, therefore, allows envisioning a distinctive variation of choosiness in natural populations and highlights the importance of considering social background information in future behavioral studies.

scholarly journals Natural variation in yolk fatty acids, but not androgens, predicts offspring fitness in a wild bird

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Mentesana ◽  
Martin N. Andersson ◽  
Stefania Casagrande ◽  
Wolfgang Goymann ◽  
Caroline Isaksson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fatty Acids ◽  
Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids ◽  
Maternal Effects ◽  
Natural Variation ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Offspring Fitness

Abstract Background In egg-laying animals, mothers can influence the developmental environment and thus the phenotype of their offspring by secreting various substances into the egg yolk. In birds, recent studies have demonstrated that different yolk substances can interactively affect offspring phenotype, but the implications of such effects for offspring fitness and phenotype in natural populations have remained unclear. We measured natural variation in the content of 31 yolk components known to shape offspring phenotypes including steroid hormones, antioxidants and fatty acids in eggs of free-living great tits (Parus major) during two breeding seasons. We tested for relationships between yolk component groupings and offspring fitness and phenotypes. Results Variation in hatchling and fledgling numbers was primarily explained by yolk fatty acids (including saturated, mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids) - but not by androgen hormones and carotenoids, components previously considered to be major determinants of offspring phenotype. Fatty acids were also better predictors of variation in nestling oxidative status and size than androgens and carotenoids. Conclusions Our results suggest that fatty acids are important yolk substances that contribute to shaping offspring fitness and phenotype in free-living populations. Since polyunsaturated fatty acids cannot be produced de novo by the mother, but have to be obtained from the diet, these findings highlight potential mechanisms (e.g., weather, habitat quality, foraging ability) through which environmental variation may shape maternal effects and consequences for offspring. Our study represents an important first step towards unraveling interactive effects of multiple yolk substances on offspring fitness and phenotypes in free-living populations. It provides the basis for future experiments that will establish the pathways by which yolk components, singly and/or interactively, mediate maternal effects in natural populations.

scholarly journals OMICS IN AGING RESEARCH: FROM BIOMARKERS TO SYSTEMS BIOLOGY

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S234-S234
Author(s):  
Daniel Promislow
Keyword(s):  
Natural Variation ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Network Models ◽  
Explanatory Gap ◽  
Aging Research ◽  
Evolutionary Forces ◽  
Related Disease ◽  
Diverse Species ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Complex Human Traits

Abstract Advances in whole genome sequencing have dramatically increased our potential to understand what shapes variation in rates of aging and age-related disease in natural populations, but we are still far from realizing this potential. Researchers have identified thousands of genetic markers associated with complex human traits. However, these markers typically explain a very small fraction of the observed variance, leaving an enormous explanatory gap between genotype and phenotype. I will present data from diverse species to illustrate the power of so-called endophenotypes—the epigenome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome—to bridge the genotype-phenotype gap. Using multivariate and network models that integrate genetic information with other endophenotype variation, we are closer than ever to understanding the mechanisms that account for natural variation in aging and age-related disease, and the evolutionary forces that have shaped that variation.

scholarly journals Natural Variation in Seed Very Long Chain Fatty Acid Content Is Controlled by a New Isoform of KCS18 in Arabidopsis thaliana

PLoS ONE ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. e49261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Jasinski ◽  
Alain Lécureuil ◽  
Martine Miquel ◽  
Olivier Loudet ◽  
Sylvain Raffaele ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
Fatty Acid ◽  
Acid Content ◽  
Natural Variation ◽  
Fatty Acid Content ◽  
Chain Fatty Acid ◽  
Long Chain Fatty Acid ◽  
Long Chain

scholarly journals QTL mapping of genotype–environment interaction for fitness in Drosophila melanogaster

1998 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES D. FRY ◽  
SERGEY V. NUZHDIN ◽  
ELENA G. PASYUKOVA ◽  
TRUDY F. C. MACKAY
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Heterogeneity ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Antagonistic Pleiotropy ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Standard Medium ◽  
Fitness Effects ◽  
Genotype Environment Interaction ◽  
Different Temperatures ◽  
Temperature Interaction ◽  
Ri Lines

A fundamental assumption of models for the maintenance of genetic variation by environmental heterogeneity is that selection favours alternative alleles in different environments. It is not clear, however, whether such antagonistic pleiotropy is common. We mapped quantitative trait loci (QTLs) causing variation for reproductive performance in each of three environmental treatments among a set of 98 recombinant inbred (RI) lines derived from a cross between two D. melanogaster laboratory strains. The three treatments were standard medium at 25°C, ethanol-supplemented medium at 25°C, and standard medium at 18°C. The RI lines showed highly significant genotype–environment interaction for the fitness measure. Of six QTLs with significant effects on fitness in at least one of the environments, five had significantly different effects at the different temperatures. In each case, the QTL by temperature interaction arose because the QTL had stronger effects at one temperature than at the other. No evidence for QTLs with opposite fitness effects in different environments was found. These results, together with those of recent studies of crop plants, suggest that antagonistic pleiotropy is a relatively uncommon form of genotype–environment interaction for fitness, but additional studies of natural populations are needed to confirm this conclusion.

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