Adaptive genetic potential and plasticity of trait variation in the foundation prairie grass Andropogon gerardii across the US Great Plains’ climate gradient: Implications for climate change and restoration

Abstract

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Reciprocal transplant gardens as gold standard to detect local adaptation in grassland species: New opportunities moving into the 21st century

“…The Andropogon gerardii study focused on understanding patterns of local adaptation in a dominant grass (Figure 3) in response to a longitudinal mean annual precipitation (MAP) gradient that spans from 500 mm in the west to 1,200 mm in the east of the Great Plains (Galliart et al, 2019(Galliart et al, , 2020Gray et al, 2014;Johnson et al, 2015). This climate gradient has been in existence for approximately 10,000 years (Axelrod, 1985), thus providing adequate time for selection to take place and local adaptation to develop.…”

“…In our study, ecotypes appeared functionally different growing together side-by-side (Figure 6b), suggesting a genetic basis for the observed phenotypic differences. Ecotypes differed in terms of candidate genes such as NAC, glutamate synthetase, peroxidase and GA1 (Galliart et al, 2020). In particular, the allelic frequency of GA1, which regulates height through involvement in the pathway to create the plant hormone gibberellic acid, differs across the rainfall gradient such that one allele form predominates in the short dry ecotype, while the alternate form prevails in the tall, robust wet ecotype (Figures 6 and 10; Galliart et al, 2019Galliart et al, , 2020.…”

“…Ecotypes differed in terms of candidate genes such as NAC, glutamate synthetase, peroxidase and GA1 (Galliart et al, 2020). In particular, the allelic frequency of GA1, which regulates height through involvement in the pathway to create the plant hormone gibberellic acid, differs across the rainfall gradient such that one allele form predominates in the short dry ecotype, while the alternate form prevails in the tall, robust wet ecotype (Figures 6 and 10; Galliart et al, 2019Galliart et al, , 2020. Variation in GA1 likely contributes to observed height differences between ecotypes, with the wet ecotype growing to about 4.7 times the height of the dry ecotype (Galliart et al, 2020).…”

“…In particular, the allelic frequency of GA1, which regulates height through involvement in the pathway to create the plant hormone gibberellic acid, differs across the rainfall gradient such that one allele form predominates in the short dry ecotype, while the alternate form prevails in the tall, robust wet ecotype (Figures 6 and 10; Galliart et al, 2019Galliart et al, , 2020. Variation in GA1 likely contributes to observed height differences between ecotypes, with the wet ecotype growing to about 4.7 times the height of the dry ecotype (Galliart et al, 2020). Furthermore, tall plants support more biomass, leading to greater competitiveness (Moles et al, 2009) as is observed in the wetter areas of the Great Plains where grasses compete with tall shrubs and small trees (Kuchler, 1964).…”

“…The four points per ecotype represent the four source populations. Modified fromGalliart et al (2020)…”