Title: Drought adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana by extensive genetic loss-of-function

Journal Article · · eLife
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [3];  [3]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5]
  1. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Dept. of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management; Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)..Graduate Degree Program in Ecology; DOE/OSTI
  2. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Dept. of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management; Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Dept. of Biology
  3. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Dept. of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management
  4. HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Huntsville (United States)
  5. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Dept. of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management; Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)..Graduate Degree Program in Ecology

Interdisciplinary syntheses are needed to scale up discovery of the environmental drivers and molecular basis of adaptation in nature. Here we integrated novel approaches using whole genome sequences, satellite remote sensing, and transgenic experiments to study natural loss-of-function alleles associated with drought histories in wild Arabidopsis thaliana. The genes we identified exhibit population genetic signatures of parallel molecular evolution, selection for loss-of-function, and shared associations with flowering time phenotypes in directions consistent with longstanding adaptive hypotheses seven times more often than expected by chance. We then confirmed predicted phenotypes experimentally in transgenic knockout lines. These findings reveal the importance of drought timing to explain the evolution of alternative drought tolerance strategies and further challenge popular assumptions about the adaptive value of genetic loss-of-function in nature. These results also motivate improved species-wide sequencing efforts to better identify loss-of-function variants and inspire new opportunities for engineering climate resilience in crops.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1628896
Journal Information:
eLife, Journal Name: eLife Vol. 7; ISSN 2050-084X
Publisher:
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd.Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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