RT Journal Article
T1 Molecular basis of intraspecific differentiation for heavy metal tolerance in the copper moss Scopelophila cataractae
A1 Boquete Seoane, María Teresa
A1 Schmid, Marc W
A1 Wagemaker, niels
A1 Carey, Sarah B.
A1 McDaniel, Stuart
A1 Richards, Christina
A1 Alonso, Conchita
K1 Abiotic stress response
K1 DNA methylation
K1 Epigenetics
K1 Metallophyte moss
K1 Phenotypic variation
K1 Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing
K1 RNA sequencing
AB The remarkable capacity of bryophytes to tolerate extremely challenging abiotic conditions allows us to enhance our understanding of the diversity of molecular mechanisms involved in plant stress response. Here, we used next generation sequencing to study DNA methylation and gene expression changes in plants from four populations of the metallophyte moss Scopelophila cataractae experimentally exposed to either Cd or Cu. These populations previously showed differences in tolerance to both metals, so here, we aimed to investigate the molecular basis of this phenotypic differentiation. We found no evidence of genetic differentiation among the populations studied. The epigenetic data, however, showed limited but significant population-specific changes in DNA methylation in response to both metals. Exposure to acute Cu stress in the laboratory led to the downregulation of genes involved in heavy metal tolerance in both the more and the less tolerant populations, but this response was quantitatively higher in the most tolerant. We propose that chronic exposure to varying levels of heavy metals in the field led to potentially non-genetically-based intraspecific differentiation for heavy metal tolerance in S. cataractae. The most tolerant plants invested more in constitutive protection and were more efficient at entering a conservative state when faced with acute Cu stress
PB Elsevier
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/29123
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/29123
LA eng
NO Environmental and Experimental Botany  201 (2022) 104970
NO This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 704141-BryOmics. Dr. M. Teresa Boquete has been supported during the development of this project by the Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación program from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (IJC2018-035018) and is currently supported by the Maria Zambrano program from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities
DS Minerva
RD 29 abr 2026