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Natural genetic variation in Arabidopsis thaliana defense metabolism genes modulates field fitness.

ABSTRACT: Natural populations persist in complex environments, where biotic stressors, such as pathogen and insect communities, fluctuate temporally and spatially. These shifting biotic pressures generate heterogeneous selective forces that can maintain standing natural variation within a species. To directly test if genes containing causal variation for the Arabidopsis thaliana defensive compounds, glucosinolates (GSL) control field fitness and are therefore subject to natural selection, we conducted a multi-year field trial using lines that vary in only specific causal genes. Interestingly, we found that variation in these naturally polymorphic GSL genes affected fitness in each of our environments but the pattern fluctuated such that highly fit genotypes in one trial displayed lower fitness in another and that no GSL genotype or genotypes consistently out-performed the others. This was true both across locations and within the same location across years. These results indicate that environmental heterogeneity may contribute to the maintenance of GSL variation observed within Arabidopsis thaliana.

SUBMITTER: Kerwin R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4396512 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Natural genetic variation in Arabidopsis thaliana defense metabolism genes modulates field fitness.

Kerwin Rachel R Feusier Julie J Corwin Jason J Rubin Matthew M Lin Catherine C Muok Alise A Larson Brandon B Li Baohua B Joseph Bindu B Francisco Marta M Copeland Daniel D Weinig Cynthia C Kliebenstein Daniel J DJ

eLife 20150413

Natural populations persist in complex environments, where biotic stressors, such as pathogen and insect communities, fluctuate temporally and spatially. These shifting biotic pressures generate heterogeneous selective forces that can maintain standing natural variation within a species. To directly test if genes containing causal variation for the Arabidopsis thaliana defensive compounds, glucosinolates (GSL) control field fitness and are therefore subject to natural selection, we conducted a m ...[more]

PMID: 25867014

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Project description:BACKGROUND: DNA methylation is an important biochemical mark that silences repetitive sequences, such as transposons, and reinforces epigenetic gene expression states. An important class of repetitive genes under epigenetic control in eukaryotic genomes encodes ribosomal RNA (rRNA) transcripts. The ribosomal genes coding for the 45S rRNA precursor of the three largest eukaryotic ribosomal RNAs (18S, 5.8S, and 25-28S) are found in nucleolus organizer regions (NORs), comprised of hundreds to thousands of repeats, only some of which are expressed in any given cell. An epigenetic switch, mediated by DNA methylation and histone modification, turns rRNA genes on and off. However, little is known about the mechanisms that specify and maintain the patterns of NOR DNA methylation. RESULTS: Here, we explored the extent of naturally-occurring variation in NOR DNA methylation among accessions of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana. DNA methylation in coding regions of rRNA genes was positively correlated with copy number of 45S rRNA gene and DNA methylation in the intergenic spacer regions. We investigated the inheritance of NOR DNA methylation patterns in natural accessions with hypomethylated NORs in inter-strain crosses and defined three different categories of inheritance in F1 hybrids. In addition, subsequent analysis of F2 segregation for NOR DNA methylation patterns uncovered different patterns of inheritance. We also revealed that NOR DNA methylation in the Arabidopsis accession Bor-4 is influenced by the vim1-1 (variant in methylation 1-1) mutation, but the primary effect is specified by the NORs themselves. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the NORs themselves are the most significant determinants of natural variation in NOR DNA methylation. However, the inheritance of NOR DNA methylation suggests the operation of a diverse set of mechanisms, including inheritance of parental methylation patterns, reconfiguration of parental NOR DNA methylation, and the involvement of trans-acting modifiers.

Dataset Information

Natural genetic variation in Arabidopsis thaliana defense metabolism genes modulates field fitness.

Publications

Natural genetic variation in Arabidopsis thaliana defense metabolism genes modulates field fitness.

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