Adaptation to climate through flowering phenology: a case study in Medicago truncatula
2016
Burgarella, Concetta | Chantret, Nathalie | Gay, Laurène | Prosperi, Jean-Marie | Bonhomme, Maxime | Tiffin, Peter | Young, Nevin D. | Ronfort, Joelle, J. | Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) | Diversité, adaptation, développement des plantes (UMR DIADE) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [Occitanie]) | Amélioration génétique et adaptation des plantes méditerranéennes et tropicales (UMR AGAP) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro) | LRSV-Evolution des Interactions Plantes-Microorganismes (LRSV-EIPM) ; Laboratoire de Recherche en Sciences Végétales (LRSV) ; Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Department of Plant Biology ; University of Minnesota [Twin Cities] (UMN) ; University of Minnesota System (UMN)-University of Minnesota System (UMN) | Department of plant pathology ; University of Minnesota [Twin Cities] (UMN) ; University of Minnesota System (UMN)-University of Minnesota System (UMN) | INRA (French National Institute of Agronomical Research) Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding ; ARCAD, a flagship project of the Agropolis Foundation ; NSF : 1237993 ; French laboratory of excellence project (LABEX) 'TULIP' : ANR-10-LABX-41 | ANR-11-IDEX-0002,UNITI,Université Fédérale de Toulouse(2011) | ANR-10-LABX-0001,AGRO,Agricultural Sciences for sustainable Development(2010)
AGAP : équipe GEpop
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Show more [+] Less [-]English. Local climatic conditions likely constitute an important selective pressure on genes underlying important fitness-related traits such as flowering time and in many species flowering phenology and climatic gradients strongly covary. To test whether climate shapes genetic variation on flowering time genes and to identify candidate flowering genes involved in the adaptation to environmental heterogeneity, we used a large M. truncatula core collection to examine the association between nucleotide polymorphisms at 224 candidate genes and both climate variables and flowering phenotypes. Unlike genome-wide studies, candidate gene approaches are expected to enrich for the number of meaningful trait associations because they specifically target genes that are known to affect the trait of interest. We found that flowering time mediates adaptation to climatic conditions mainly by variation at genes located upstream in the flowering pathways, close to the environmental stimuli. Variables related to the annual precipitation regime reflected selective constraints on flowering time genes better than the other variables tested (temperature, altitude, latitude or longitude). By comparing phenotype and climate associations, we identified 12 flowering genes as the most promising candidates responsible for phenological adaptation to climate. Four of these genes were located in the known flowering time QTL region on chromosome 7. However, climate and flowering associations also highlighted largely distinct gene sets, suggesting different genetic architectures for adaptation to climate and flowering onset.
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