Genetic and epigenetic variations associated with adaptation to heterogeneous habitat conditions in a deciduous shrub

Abstract

Environmentally induced phenotypic plasticity is thought to play an important role in the adaption of plant populations to heterogeneous habitat conditions, and yet the importance of epigenetic variation as a mechanism of adaptive plasticity in natural plant populations still merits further research. In this study, we investigated populations of Vitex negundo var. heterophylla (Chinese chastetree) from adjacent habitat types at seven sampling sites. Using several functional traits, we detected a significant differentiation between habitat types. With amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) and methylation‐sensitive AFLP (MSAP), we found relatively high levels of genetic and epigenetic diversity but very low genetic and epigenetic differences between habitats within sites. Bayesian clustering showed a remarkable habitat‐related differentiation and more genetic loci associated with the habitat type than epigenetic, suggesting that the adaptation to the habitat is genetically based. However, we did not find any significant correlation between genetic or epigenetic variation and habitat using simple and partial Mantel tests. Moreover, we found no correlation between genetic and ecologically relevant phenotypic variation and a significant correlation between epigenetic and phenotypic variation. Although we did not find any direct relationship between epigenetic variation and habitat environment, our findings suggest that epigenetic variation may complement genetic variation as a source of functional phenotypic diversity associated with adaptation to the heterogeneous habitat in natural plant populations.

Pre-adaptation to climate change through topography-driven evolution of traits and their plasticity

“…Although habitat differences have been shown to result in epigenetic divergence between populations (e.g. Lele et al 2018, Schmid et al 2018), empirical evidence for evolution toward higher within-population epigenetic variation in heterogeneous environments is still lacking.…”

Application of the MSAP Technique to Evaluate Epigenetic Changes in Plant Conservation

“…There are many factors that affect the level of methylation in CCGG sequences and that cause the number of fragments produced by the MSAP technique to vary from sample to sample. In ecological and population DNA methylation-related studies [ 39 , 115 ], where DNA samples are obtained from several individuals, there is variation in GC content and methylation level between those individuals. In these studies, it is important to consider that during the sampling process an additional statistical variation is generated due to the sampled individuals.…”

Hypomethylation of the aquatic invasive plant, Ludwigia grandiflora subsp. hexapetala mimics the adaptive transition into the terrestrial morphotype

“…Further investigations involving spatial genetic structure and genomic approaches should help disentangling between those hypotheses. However, even if such fast-terrestrial transition would have emerged from a newly acquired genetically based adaptive capacity hidden in a dominant pattern of isolation-by-distance, it would not exclude an additive, complementary or even dominant epigenetic effect on their phenotypes (Lele et al 2018, Banerjee et al 2019.…”