title: Habitat-Associated Life History and Stress-Tolerance Variation in Arabidopsis arenosa.
abstract: Weediness in ephemeral plants is commonly characterized by rapid cycling, prolific all-in flowering, and loss of perenniality. Many species made transitions to weediness of this sort, which can be advantageous in high-disturbance or human-associated habitats. The molecular basis of this shift, however, remains mostly mysterious. Here, we use transcriptome sequencing, genome resequencing scans for selection, and stress tolerance assays to study a weedy population of the otherwise nonweedy Arabidopsis arenosa, an obligately outbreeding relative of Arabidopsis thaliana Although weedy A. arenosa is widespread, a single genetic lineage colonized railways throughout central and northern Europe. We show that railway plants, in contrast to plants from sheltered outcrops in hill/mountain regions, are rapid cycling, have lost the vernalization requirement, show prolific flowering, and do not return to vegetative growth. Comparing transcriptomes of railway and mountain plants across time courses with and without vernalization, we found that railway plants have sharply abrogated vernalization responsiveness and high constitutive expression of heat- and cold-responsive genes. Railway plants also have strong constitutive heat shock and freezing tolerance compared with mountain plants, where tolerance must be induced. We found 20 genes with good evidence of selection in the railway population. One of these, LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL, is known in A. thaliana to regulate many stress-response genes that we found to be differentially regulated among the distinct habitats. Our data suggest that, beyond life history regulation, other traits like basal stress tolerance also are associated with the evolution of weediness in A. arenosa.
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA (P.B., B.A., B.H., K.B.);École des Mines de Paris, 75006 Paris, France (P.B.); andHarvard Biophysics Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02138 (C.M.W.).
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baduel
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA (P.B., B.A., B.H., K.B.);École des Mines de Paris, 75006 Paris, France (P.B.); andHarvard Biophysics Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02138 (C.M.W.).
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA (P.B., B.A., B.H., K.B.);École des Mines de Paris, 75006 Paris, France (P.B.); andHarvard Biophysics Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02138 (C.M.W.).
authors.forename: Cara M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Weisman
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA (P.B., B.A., B.H., K.B.);École des Mines de Paris, 75006 Paris, France (P.B.); andHarvard Biophysics Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02138 (C.M.W.).
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA (P.B., B.A., B.H., K.B.);École des Mines de Paris, 75006 Paris, France (P.B.); andHarvard Biophysics Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02138 (C.M.W.) kirsten.bomblies@jic.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2434-3863
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bomblies
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D017753:Ecosystem; D035264:Flowers / Q000502:physiology*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D026161:MADS Domain Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C418902:At5g10140 protein, Arabidopsis; C113192:LHY protein, Arabidopsis; D026161:MADS Domain Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors