RT Journal Article
T1 Epigenetic and phenotypic responses to experimental climate change of native and invasive Carpobrotus edulis
A1 González Campoy, Josefina
A1 Sobral Bernal, Mª Mar
A1 Carro Espada, Belén
A1 Lema Márquez, Margarita
A1 Barreiro Lozano, Rodolfo
A1 Retuerto Franco, José Carlos Rubén
K1 Aizoaceae
K1 Adaptation
K1 DNA methylation
K1 Environmental change
K1 Ice plant
K1 Invasive species
K1 Phenotype
K1 Trait
AB Despite the recent discoveries on how DNA methylation could help plants to adapt to changing environments, the relationship between epigenetics and climate change or invasion in new areas is still poorly known. Here, we investigated, through a field experiment, how the new expected climate scenarios for Southern Europe, i.e., increased temperature and decreased rainfall, might affect global DNA methylation in relation to phenotypic variation in individuals of clonal plant, Carpobrotus edulis, from its native (Southern African) and invaded (northwestern Iberian Peninsula) area. Our results showed that changes in temperature and rainfall induced phenotypic but not global DNA methylation differences among plants, and the climatic effects were similar for plants coming from the native or invaded areas. The individuals from the Iberian Peninsula showed higher levels of global methylation than their native counterparts from South Africa. We also observed differences between natives and invasive phenotypes in traits related to the pattern of biomass partitioning and to the strategies for water uptake and use and found an epigenetic contribution to phenotypic changes in some leaf traits, especially on the nitrogen isotopic composition. We conclude that the increased temperature and decreased rainfall projected for Southern Europe during the course of the twenty-first century may foster phenotypic changes in C. edulis, possibly endowing this species with a higher ability to successful cope the rapid environmental shifts. The epigenetic and phenotypic divergence that we observed between native and invasive plants suggests an intraspecific functional variation during the process of invasion. This result could indicate that phenotypic plasticity and global DNA methylation are related to the colonization of new habitats. Our findings reinforce the importance of epigenetic plasticity on rapid adaptation of invasive clonal plants
PB Frontiers Media SA
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30131
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30131
LA eng
NO Campoy JG, Sobral M, Carro B, Lema M, Barreiro R and Retuerto R (2022) Epigenetic and Phenotypic Responses to Experimental Climate Change of Native and Invasive Carpobrotus edulis. Front. Plant Sci. 13:888391. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.888391
NO Funding for this study was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF; grant Ref. CGL2013-48885-C2-2-R and Ref. CGL2017-87294-C3-1P awarded to RR) and by the Autonomous Government of Galicia (grant ref. I2CB awarded to MS)
DS Minerva
RD 28 abr 2026