Adaptation to seasonality and the winter freeze

Flowering plants initially diversified during the Mesozoic era at least 140 million years ago in regions of the world where temperate seasonal environments were not encountered. Since then several cooling events resulted in the contraction of warm and wet environments and the establishment of novel...

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Main Authors: Jill Christine Preston, Simen Rod Sandve
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-06-01
Series:Frontiers in Plant Science
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpls.2013.00167/full
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author Jill Christine Preston
Simen Rod Sandve
author_facet Jill Christine Preston
Simen Rod Sandve
author_sort Jill Christine Preston
collection DOAJ
description Flowering plants initially diversified during the Mesozoic era at least 140 million years ago in regions of the world where temperate seasonal environments were not encountered. Since then several cooling events resulted in the contraction of warm and wet environments and the establishment of novel temperate zones in both hemispheres. In response, less than half of modern angiosperm families have members that evolved specific adaptations to cold seasonal climates, including cold acclimation, freezing tolerance, endodormancy, and vernalization responsiveness. Despite compelling evidence for multiple independent origins, the level of genetic constraint on the evolution of adaptations to seasonal cold is not well understood. However, the recent increase in molecular genetic studies examining the response of model and crop species to seasonal cold offers new insight into the evolutionary lability of these traits. This insight has major implications for our understanding of complex trait evolution, and the potential role of local adaptation in response to past and future climate change. In this review, we discuss the biochemical, morphological, and developmental basis of adaptations to seasonal cold, and synthesize recent literature on the genetic basis of these traits in a phylogenomic context. We find evidence for multiple genetic links between distinct physiological responses to cold, possibly reinforcing the coordinated expression of these traits. Furthermore, repeated recruitment of the same or similar ancestral pathways suggests that land plants might be somewhat pre-adapted to dealing with temperature stress, perhaps making inducible cold traits relatively easy to evolve.
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spelling doaj.art-1cc06ba4691e411aba4ce171af98ec332022-12-22T03:32:20ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Plant Science1664-462X2013-06-01410.3389/fpls.2013.0016746453Adaptation to seasonality and the winter freezeJill Christine Preston0Simen Rod Sandve1University of VermontNorwegian University of Life SciencesFlowering plants initially diversified during the Mesozoic era at least 140 million years ago in regions of the world where temperate seasonal environments were not encountered. Since then several cooling events resulted in the contraction of warm and wet environments and the establishment of novel temperate zones in both hemispheres. In response, less than half of modern angiosperm families have members that evolved specific adaptations to cold seasonal climates, including cold acclimation, freezing tolerance, endodormancy, and vernalization responsiveness. Despite compelling evidence for multiple independent origins, the level of genetic constraint on the evolution of adaptations to seasonal cold is not well understood. However, the recent increase in molecular genetic studies examining the response of model and crop species to seasonal cold offers new insight into the evolutionary lability of these traits. This insight has major implications for our understanding of complex trait evolution, and the potential role of local adaptation in response to past and future climate change. In this review, we discuss the biochemical, morphological, and developmental basis of adaptations to seasonal cold, and synthesize recent literature on the genetic basis of these traits in a phylogenomic context. We find evidence for multiple genetic links between distinct physiological responses to cold, possibly reinforcing the coordinated expression of these traits. Furthermore, repeated recruitment of the same or similar ancestral pathways suggests that land plants might be somewhat pre-adapted to dealing with temperature stress, perhaps making inducible cold traits relatively easy to evolve.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpls.2013.00167/fullplant adaptationSeasonalityfreezing tolerancecold acclimationcold toleranceendodormancy
spellingShingle Jill Christine Preston
Simen Rod Sandve
Adaptation to seasonality and the winter freeze
Frontiers in Plant Science
plant adaptation
Seasonality
freezing tolerance
cold acclimation
cold tolerance
endodormancy
title Adaptation to seasonality and the winter freeze
title_full Adaptation to seasonality and the winter freeze
title_fullStr Adaptation to seasonality and the winter freeze
title_full_unstemmed Adaptation to seasonality and the winter freeze
title_short Adaptation to seasonality and the winter freeze
title_sort adaptation to seasonality and the winter freeze
topic plant adaptation
Seasonality
freezing tolerance
cold acclimation
cold tolerance
endodormancy
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpls.2013.00167/full
work_keys_str_mv AT jillchristinepreston adaptationtoseasonalityandthewinterfreeze
AT simenrodsandve adaptationtoseasonalityandthewinterfreeze