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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Pullman, Washington » Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #366556
Research Project: Management of Priority Legume, Oilseed, Vegetable, Forage Grass, Sugar, Ornamental, and Medicinal Plant Genetic Resources and Associated Information

Location: Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research

Title: Limited divergent adaptation despite a substantial environmental cline in wild pea

Author
item HELLWIG, TIMO - Hebrew University Of Jerusalem
item ABBO, SHAHAL - Hebrew University Of Jerusalem
item SHERMAN, A. - Volcani Center (ARO)
item Coyne, Clarice - Clare
item SARANGA, Y. - Hebrew University Of Jerusalem
item LEV-YADUN, S. - University Of Haifa
item MAIN, DORRIE - Washington State University
item ZHENG, PING - Washington State University
item OPHIR, RON - Volcani Center (ARO)

Submitted to: Molecular Ecology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/30/2020
Publication Date: 10/2/2020
Citation: Hellwig, T., Abbo, S., Sherman, A., Coyne, C.J., Saranga, Y., Lev-Yadun, S., Main, D., Zheng, P., Ophir, R. 2020. Limited divergent adaptation despite a substantial environmental cline in wild pea. Molecular Ecology. 29(22):4322-4338. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15633.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15633

Interpretive Summary: Several human activities such as land-use-changes or the extensive emission of greenhouse gases are rapidly altering the world´s ecosystems on all spatial scales. Plant species may respond in three ways to changing environments: (1) morphological and physiological plasticity, (2) by moving locally along habitat gradients or migrating at higher spatial scales and (3) evolutionary change, i.e. genetic modification. Investigating the mechanisms and pace of adaptation requires taking environmental, spatial and temporal patterns into account. Predicting the impact of changing environments on biodiversity is a major challenge, especially at the level of intraspecific diversity. However, such predictions are particularly important for crop wild relatives (CWR) that may serve as sources of desired genes and alleles for future breeding. Interpretation of our results indicates a low level of adaptation of P. fulvum to its abiotic environment. This might be the result of genetic drift due to the experienced bottleneck. The absence of differential adaptation and the low effective population size may make P. fulvum vulnerable to strong alterations of its habitat.

Technical Abstract: Several human activities such as land-use-changes or the extensive emission of greenhouse gases are rapidly altering the world´s ecosystems on all spatial scales. Plant species may respond in three ways to changing environments: (1) morphological and physiological plasticity, (2) by moving locally along habitat gradients or migrating at higher spatial scales and (3) evolutionary change, i.e. genetic modification. Investigating the mechanisms and pace of adaptation requires taking environmental, spatial and temporal patterns into account. Predicting the impact of changing environments on biodiversity is a major challenge, especially at the level of intraspecific diversity. However, such predictions are particularly important for crop wild relatives (CWR) that may serve as sources of desired genes and alleles for future breeding. Interpretation of our results indicates a low level of adaptation of P. fulvum to its abiotic environment. This might be the result of genetic drift due to the experienced bottleneck. The absence of differential adaptation and the low effective population size may make P. fulvum vulnerable to strong alterations of its habitat.