title: Tissue Culture as a Source of Replicates in Nonmodel Plants: Variation in Cold Response in Arabidopsis lyrata ssp. petraea.
abstract: While genotype-environment interaction is increasingly receiving attention by ecologists and evolutionary biologists, such studies need genetically homogeneous replicates-a challenging hurdle in outcrossing plants. This could be potentially overcome by using tissue culture techniques. However, plants regenerated from tissue culture may show aberrant phenotypes and "somaclonal" variation. Here, we examined somaclonal variation due to tissue culturing using the response to cold treatment of photosynthetic efficiency (chlorophyll fluorescence measurements for Fv/Fm, Fv'/Fm', and ΦPSII, representing maximum efficiency of photosynthesis for dark- and light-adapted leaves, and the actual electron transport operating efficiency, respectively, which are reliable indicators of photoinhibition and damage to the photosynthetic electron transport system). We compared this to variation among half-sibling seedlings from three different families of Arabidopsis lyrata ssp. petraea Somaclonal variation was limited, and we could detect within-family variation in change in chlorophyll fluorescence due to cold shock successfully with the help of tissue-culture derived replicates. Icelandic and Norwegian families exhibited higher chlorophyll fluorescence, suggesting higher performance after cold shock, than a Swedish family. Although the main effect of tissue culture on Fv/Fm, Fv'/Fm', and ΦPSIIwas small, there were significant interactions between tissue culture and family, suggesting that the effect of tissue culture is genotype-specific. Tissue-cultured plantlets were less affected by cold treatment than seedlings, but to a different extent in each family. These interactive effects, however, were comparable to, or much smaller than the single effect of family. These results suggest that tissue culture is a useful method for obtaining genetically homogenous replicates for studying genotype-environment interaction related to adaptively-relevant phenotypes, such as cold response, in nonmodel outcrossing plants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK kenta@sugadaira.tsukuba.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Tanaka
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kenta
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK.
authors.forename: Jessica E M
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK.
authors.forename: Roger K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Butlin
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK.
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK.
authors.forename: W Paul
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Quick
authors.affiliation: Centre for Plant Sciences, Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Urwin
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK.
authors.forename: Matthew P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Davey
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000502:physiology*; D058639:Cold-Shock Response; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D014644:Genetic Variation; D036226:Seedlings / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques
keywords: adaptive variation; genetic architecture; genetic basis; reaction norm; stress tolerance