No evidence for local adaptation and an epigenetic underpinning in native and non‐native ruderal plant species in Germany

Abstract

Many invasive species have rapidly adapted to different environments in their new ranges. This is surprising, as colonization is usually associated with reduced genetic variation. Heritable phenotypic variation with an epigenetic basis may explain this paradox. Here, we assessed the contribution of DNA methylation to local adaptation in native and naturalized non‐native ruderal plant species in Germany. We reciprocally transplanted offspring from natural populations of seven native and five non‐native plant species between the Konstanz region in the south and the Potsdam region in the north of Germany. Before the transplant, half of the seeds were treated with the demethylation agent zebularine. We recorded survival, flowering probability, and biomass production as fitness estimates. Contrary to our expectations, we found little evidence for local adaptation, both among the native and among the non‐native plant species. Zebularine treatment had mostly negative effects on overall plant performance, regardless of whether plants were local or not, and regardless of whether they were native or non‐native. Synthesis. We conclude that local adaptation, at least at the scale of our study, plays no major role in the success of non‐native and native ruderal plants. Consequently, we found no evidence yet for an epigenetic basis of local adaptation.

DNA methylome and transcriptome landscapes revealed differential characteristics of dioecious flowers in papaya

“…Drug-induced demethylation effects made papaya trees show severe inhibition of inflorescences growth in both male and female plants. Similar growth inhibitory effects were reported in Arabidopsis and other plant species with demethylation agent treatment 53,54 . Severe growth inhibitory effects with withered young leaves were observed in young papaya seedlings as well.…”

“…Similarly, some flowering initiating genes (such as CiAP1, CiFLC, and CiLFY) were influenced by locus-specific methylation alteration with 5azacytidine hypomethylation treatment, and might play an important role in early flowering and juvenescent phase shortening in Poncirus trifoliata 52 . However, several deleterious effects of DNA demethylating agent have also been reported as dwarfism or other weak growth performance 50,53 . In our unreported work, similar methylation inhibition experiment was conducted.…”

Manipulation of cytosine methylation does not remove latitudinal clines in two invasive goldenrod species in Central Europe

“…Our study is the first common‐garden study that used a demethylation agent in an attempt to experimentally disentangle epigenetic and genetic contributions to phenotypic variation in offspring of invasive plants sampled along a latitudinal gradient. Demethylation agents have been used by previous studies on the role of epigenetics in an ecological and evolutionary context (Bossdorf et al., 2010; Herden et al., 2019; Verhoeven & van Gurp, 2012).…”

DNA Methylation Can Mediate Local Adaptation and Response to Climate Change in the Clonal Plant Fragaria vesca: Evidence From a European-Scale Reciprocal Transplant Experiment

“…Such limitations can be bypassed by using reciprocal transplant experiments involving experimental alteration of plant epigenomes before transplantation to their home and away environments. Comparing the fitness of plants with altered DNA methylation with those with natural DNA methylation can serve as a test of epigenetically driven local adaptation (e.g., Herden et al, 2019 ). Reciprocal transplant experiments are indeed traditional tests for the study of local adaptation (e.g., Ågren and Schemske, 2012 ).…”

“…When including the experimental alteration of epigenomes of clones of the same plants, reciprocal transplant experiments can provide a direct evidence of the role of epigenetic mechanisms in local adaptation and/or response to changing climate, without the confounding effect of underlying genetic variation. However, these studies are currently very rare, and to our knowledge, there is only one other study employing such an approach in field conditions ( Herden et al, 2019 ).…”