Century-long timelines of herbarium genomes predict plant stomatal response to climate change.

ABSTRACT: Dissecting plant responses to the environment is key to understanding whether and how plants adapt to anthropogenic climate change. Stomata, plants' pores for gas exchange, are expected to decrease in density following increased CO₂ concentrations, a trend already observed in multiple plant species. However, it is unclear whether such responses are based on genetic changes and evolutionary adaptation. Here we make use of extensive knowledge of 43 genes in the stomatal development pathway and newly generated genome information of 191 Arabidopsis thaliana historical herbarium specimens collected over 193 years to directly link genetic variation with climate change. While we find that the essential transcription factors SPCH, MUTE and FAMA, central to stomatal development, are unde

SUBMITTER: Lang PLM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11383800 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature