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Spatial, climate, and ploidy factors drive genomic diversity and resilience in the widespread grass Themeda triandra
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posted on 2020-09-03, 00:00 authored by Collin W Ahrens, Elizabeth A James, Adam Miller, Scott Ferguson, Nicola C Aitken, Ashley W Jones, Patricia Lu‐Irving, Justin O Borevitz, David J Cantrill, Paul D RymerGlobal climate change poses a significant threat to natural communities around the world, with many plant species showing signs of climate stress. Grassland ecosystems are not an exception, with climate change compounding contemporary pressures such as habitat loss and fragmentation. In this study, we assess the climate resilience of Themeda triandra, a foundational species and the most widespread plant in Australia, by assessing the relative contributions of spatial, environmental and ploidy factors to contemporary genomic variation. Reduced‐representation genome sequencing on 472 samples from 52 locations was used to test how the distribution of genomic variation, including ploidy polymorphism, supports adaptation to hotter and drier climates. We explicitly quantified isolation by distance (IBD) and isolation by environment (IBE) and predicted genomic vulnerability of populations to future climates based on expected deviation from current genomic composition. We found that a majority (54%) of genomic variation could be attributed to IBD, while an additional 22% (27% when including ploidy information) could be explained by two temperature and two precipitation climate variables demonstrating IBE. Ploidy polymorphisms were common within populations (31/52 populations), indicating that ploidy mixing is characteristic of T. triandra populations. Genomic vulnerabilities were found to be heterogeneously distributed throughout the landscape, and our analysis suggested that ploidy polymorphism, along with other factors linked to polyploidy, reduced vulnerability to future climates by 60% (0.25–0.10). Our data suggests that polyploidy may facilitate adaptation to hotter climates and highlight the importance of incorporating ploidy in adaptive management strategies to promote the resilience of this and other foundation species.
History
Journal
Molecular EcologyIssue
Early View - Online Version of Record before inclusion in an issuePublisher
Wiley-Blackwell PublishingLocation
Chichester, Eng.Publisher DOI
ISSN
0962-1083eISSN
1365-294XLanguage
engPublication classification
C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2020, John Wiley & SonsUsage metrics
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No categories selectedKeywords
adaptationgenomic diversitygenomic vulnerabilitylandscape genomicspolyploidyThemeda triandra (kangaroo grass)Science & TechnologyLife Sciences & BiomedicineBiochemistry & Molecular BiologyEcologyEvolutionary BiologyEnvironmental Sciences & EcologyThemeda triandra(kangaroo grass)VARIANT CALL FORMATGENETIC DIVERSITYTHEMEDA-TRIANDRAPERENNIAL GRASSPANICUM-VIRGATUMLOCAL ADAPTATIONEVOLUTIONARYPRECIPITATIONCONSERVATIONBIODIVERSITY
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