Abstract
Tolerance to prolonged water deficit occurs along a continuum in plants, with dehydration tolerance (DhT) and desiccation tolerance (DT) representing some of the most extreme adaptations to water scarcity. Although DhT and DT presumably vary among individuals of a single species, this variability remains largely unstudied. Here, we characterized expression dynamics throughout a dehydration−rehydration time-course in six diverse genotypes of the dioecious liverwort Marchantia inflexa. We identified classical signatures of stress response in M. inflexa, including major changes in transcripts related to metabolism, expression of LEA and ELIP genes, and evidence of cell wall remodeling. However, we detected very little temporal synchronization of these responses across different genotypes of M. inflexa, which may be related to genotypic variation among samples, constitutive expression of dehydration-associated transcripts, the sequestration of mRNAs in ribonucleoprotein partials prior to drying, or the lower tolerance of M. inflexa relative to most bryophytes studied to date. Our characterization of intraspecific variation in expression dynamics suggests that differences in the timing of transcriptional adjustments contribute to variation among genotypes, and that developmental differences impact the relative tolerance of meristematic and differentiated tissues. This work highlights the complexity and variability of water stress tolerance, and underscores the need for comparative studies that seek to characterize variation in DT and DhT.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 209-222 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Plant Journal |
Volume | 105 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was funded by Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation’s Research and Development Excellence grant to DNM (KSEF‐148‐502‐16‐372), the University of Kentucky Department of Biology Ribble Endowment Graduate Fellowship to RAM, the American Bryological and Lichenological Society Anderson and Crum Bryology Research Award to RAM, and the Karri Casner Environmental Sciences Fellowship to RAM. This work would not have been possible without access to critical facilities provided by the University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (greenhouse space); the Wildlife Section, Forestry Division, Ministry of Agriculture Land and Marine Resources of Trinidad and Tobago (collection and export permits); the Water and Sewage Authority (access to the field research sites). The authors thank Drs Arthur Hunt, Manohar Chakrabarti and Mel Oliver for their assistance with library preparation; Oliva Boughey for piloting RNA extraction methodologies; and Drs Carol Baskin, Michael Goodin, Daniel Herring, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and discussions that improved the rigor and presentation of this work.
Funding Information:
This work was funded by Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation’s Research and Development Excellence grant to DNM (KSEF-148-502-16-372), the University of Kentucky Department of Biology Ribble Endowment Graduate Fellowship to RAM, the American Bryological and Lichenological Society Anderson and Crum Bryology Research Award to RAM, and the Karri Casner Environmental Sciences Fellowship to RAM. This work would not have been possible without access to critical facilities provided by the University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (greenhouse space); the Wildlife Section, Forestry Division, Ministry of Agriculture Land and Marine Resources of Trinidad and Tobago (collection and export permits); the Water and Sewage Authority (access to the field research sites). The authors thank Drs Arthur Hunt, Manohar Chakrabarti and Mel Oliver for their assistance with library preparation; Oliva Boughey for piloting RNA extraction methodologies; and Drs Carol Baskin, Michael Goodin, Daniel Herring, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and discussions that improved the rigor and presentation of this work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Society for Experimental Biology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Keywords
- Marchantia inflexa
- dehydration tolerance
- desiccation tolerance
- drought
- expression dynamics
- genetic variation
- liverwort
- sex
- transcriptome
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Genetics
- Plant Science
- Cell Biology