Climatic adaptation in Picea abies progenies is affected by the temperature during zygotic embryogenesis and seed maturation

By Ø. Johnsen, Carl Gunnar Fossdal, N. Nagy, Jørgen A. Mølmann, Ola Gram Dæhlen, T. Skrøppa. 2005

158 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The temperature during maternal reproduction affects adaptive traits in progenies of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L) Karst.). Seed production in a cold environment advances bud set and cold acclimation in the autumn and dehardening and flushing in spring, whereas a warm reproductive environment delays timing of these traits. We repeated crosses between the same parents and produced seeds under contrasting temperatures. Elevated temperatures were applied at different time points from female meiosis to embryogenesis, followed by full-sib progeny tests in common environments. We measured timing of terminal bud formation, cold acclimation in the autumn and transcription levels of conifer phytochromes PhyO, PhyN, PhyP, and the class IV chitinase PaChi4 in these tests. No progeny differences were found that could be related to temperature differences during prezygotic stages and fertilization. In contrast, progeny performance was strongly associated with the degree-days from proembryo to mature seeds. Progenies with a warm embryonic history formed terminal buds later, were less hardy and expressed lower transcription levels of the Phy and PaChi4 genes. We hypothesize that temperature during zygotic embryogenesis and seed maturation regulates an 'epigenetic memory' in the progeny, involving differential expression of genes that may regulate bud phenology, cold acclimation and embryogenesis in Norway spruce.

Subfields: Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1a5327138dfdde25bd9cb5df4b54e0a37acb253e

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Plant Science

1. Timo Kunkel
2. M. Sykes
3. Thomas Hickler
4. Richard Bradshaw
5. T. Giesecke
6. S. Aitken

Citations in the corpus

• An adaptive epigenetic memory in conifers with important implications for seed production (2012, background): “In this species there exist epigenetically indifferent families with a low epigenetic memory response, epigenetically strong responding families, and families with an intermediate response (Johnsen et al., 2005).”
• ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Towards an understanding of the Holocene distribution of Fagus sylvatica L. (2006, background): “However, some of the adaptations that are seen in different provenances may be governed by the weather conditions under which seeds ripen (Johnsen et al., 2005) and thus this factor may only be of minor importance.”
• Adaptation, migration or extirpation: climate change outcomes for tree populations (2008, background): “Recent studies in Norway spruce (Picea abies) show that the temperature during both zygotic and somatic embryo development can dramatically affect cold hardiness and bud phenology in the offspring (Johnsen et al. 2005a,b; Kvaalsen and Johnsen 2007).”
• Trade-off between height growth and spring flushing in common beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) (2011, background): “There is, however, growing evidence of epigenetic memory mechanisms regulating the phenological behaviour of tree populations (Johnsen et al. 2005; Rohde and Junttila 2008).”