The Seagrass Methylome Is Associated With Variation in Photosynthetic Performance Among Clonal Shoots.

ABSTRACT: Evolutionary theory predicts that clonal organisms are more susceptible to extinction than sexually reproducing organisms, due to low genetic variation and slow rates of evolution. In agreement, conservation management considers genetic variation as the ultimate measure of a population's ability to survive over time. However, clonal plants are among the oldest living organisms on our planet. Here, we test the hypothesis that clonal seagrass meadows display epigenetic variation that complements genetic variation as a source of phenotypic variation. In a clonal meadow of the seagrass Zostera marina, we characterized DNA methylation among 42 shoots. We also sequenced the whole genome of 10 shoots to correlate methylation patterns with photosynthetic performance under exposure to and re

SUBMITTER: Jueterbock A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7498905 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature