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Plant Adaptations to Environmental Changes
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Plant Adaptations to Environmental Changes

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 9577

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Giang Thi Ha Vu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Forest Genetics and Forest Tree Breeding, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 2, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
Interests: population genetics; plant genome evolution; epigenetics; DNA damage repair; phytopathology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Oliver Gailing

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Forest Genetics and Forest Tree Breeding, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 2, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
Interests: forest genetics; adaptation to climate change; hybridization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plants have to respond to environmental changes by adaptation and acclimation (phenotypic plasticity) for their long-term survival. However, they may also escape unfavorable conditions by migration/gene flow. The way in which these mechanisms have evolved and contributed to diversity is fascinating but still largely unexplored. We believe that plants provide unique opportunities to study the mechanistic basis and evolutionary processes of adaptation to diverse environmental conditions and to global climate change. We want to learn more about (1) to what extent environmental alteration exerts novel selection pressure, disrupts local adaptation, or favors habitat range shift; (2) how adaptive phenotypic plasticity could help to sustain natural populations in new or altered environments; (3) in which way the adaptive potential of plant populations and species can be predicted. This Special Issue encourages authors to submit enlightening reviews addressing key research gaps in the field, as well as original research on validating gene function to elucidating molecular mechanisms of plant climate adaptation in model or non-model species, testing the fitness consequences of alleles in natural or controlled environments, and the development of breeding strategies for climate-resilient traits. We are particularly interested in, but are not limited to, studies on forest trees, which are characterized by an extraordinary long life-time span, long generation cycles, late start of flowering, growth in heterogeneous environments, and high levels of genetic variation within populations. 

Dr. Giang Thi Ha Vu
Prof. Dr. Oliver Gailing
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • environmental adaptation
  • abiotic stress
  • biotic stress
  • genetic variation
  • epigenetics gene expression
  • genome editing
  • CRISPR/Cas
  • next-generation sequencing

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 3158 KiB  
Article
Assembly and Annotation of Red Spruce (Picea rubens) Chloroplast Genome, Identification of Simple Sequence Repeats, and Phylogenetic Analysis in Picea
by Rajni Parmar, Federica Cattonaro, Carrie Phillips, Serguei Vassiliev, Michele Morgante and Om P. Rajora
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(23), 15243; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms232315243 - 03 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1425
Abstract
We have sequenced the chloroplast genome of red spruce (Picea rubens) for the first time using the single-end, short-reads (44 bp) Illumina sequences, assembled and functionally annotated it, and identified simple sequence repeats (SSRs). The contigs were assembled using SOAPdenovo2 following [...] Read more.
We have sequenced the chloroplast genome of red spruce (Picea rubens) for the first time using the single-end, short-reads (44 bp) Illumina sequences, assembled and functionally annotated it, and identified simple sequence repeats (SSRs). The contigs were assembled using SOAPdenovo2 following the retrieval of chloroplast genome sequences using the black spruce (Picea mariana) chloroplast genome as the reference. The assembled genome length was 122,115 bp (gaps included). Comparatively, the P. rubens chloroplast genome reported here may be considered a near-complete draft. Global genome alignment and phylogenetic analysis based on the whole chloroplast genome sequences of Picea rubens and 10 other Picea species revealed high sequence synteny and conservation among 11 Picea species and phylogenetic relationships consistent with their known classical interrelationships and published molecular phylogeny. The P. rubens chloroplast genome sequence showed the highest similarity with that of P. mariana and the lowest with that of P. sitchensis. We have annotated 107 genes including 69 protein-coding genes, 28 tRNAs, 4 rRNAs, few pseudogenes, identified 42 SSRs, and successfully designed primers for 26 SSRs. Mononucleotide A/T repeats were the most common followed by dinucleotide AT repeats. A similar pattern of microsatellite repeats occurrence was found in the chloroplast genomes of 11 Picea species. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Adaptations to Environmental Changes)
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13 pages, 3433 KiB  
Article
Novel Insights into Floral Thermogenesis: In Vivo Analyses of Mitochondrial Dynamics in Nelumbo nucifera Flowers
by Ruoyi Li, Jing Li, Siqin Wang and Ruohan Wang
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(19), 11950; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms231911950 - 08 Oct 2022
Viewed by 1925
Abstract
Animal-like thermogenic (TM) activities in flowers have been reported in several families of seed plants. While an association of mitochondria with floral thermogenesis has been described, how mitochondrial dynamics are involved in the regulation of floral thermogenesis is unclear. In this study, the [...] Read more.
Animal-like thermogenic (TM) activities in flowers have been reported in several families of seed plants. While an association of mitochondria with floral thermogenesis has been described, how mitochondrial dynamics are involved in the regulation of floral thermogenesis is unclear. In this study, the morphological and functional dynamics of mitochondria in vivo were assessed in Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. flowers during floral thermogenesis. The results showed that mitochondrial biogenesis increased considerably in N. nucifera flowers during thermogenesis, accompanied by notable morphological changes in the mitochondria, including long elliptical, rod-shaped, and dumbbell-shaped morphologies, as well as increased mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in TM cells. An increase in the expression of alternative oxidase (AOX) during the thermogenesis of N. nucifera flowers was also observed. These observations suggested the rapid change in mitochondrial morphology and increased density during thermogenesis implied activation of mitochondrial fission, which combined with elevated levels of mitochondrial ROS trigger a substantial increase in AOX within the respiratory pathway of TM N. nucifera. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Adaptations to Environmental Changes)
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18 pages, 2394 KiB  
Article
High-Light-Induced Degradation of Photosystem II Subunits’ Involvement in the Albino Phenotype in Tea Plants
by Wen-He Cai, Xin-Qiang Zheng and Yue-Rong Liang
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(15), 8522; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms23158522 - 31 Jul 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2919
Abstract
The light-sensitive (LS) albino tea plant grows albinic shoots lacking chlorophylls (Chls) under high-light (HL) conditions, and the albinic shoots re-green under low light (LL) conditions. The albinic shoots contain a high level of amino acids and are preferential materials for processing quality [...] Read more.
The light-sensitive (LS) albino tea plant grows albinic shoots lacking chlorophylls (Chls) under high-light (HL) conditions, and the albinic shoots re-green under low light (LL) conditions. The albinic shoots contain a high level of amino acids and are preferential materials for processing quality green tea. The young plants of the albino tea cultivars are difficult to be cultivated owing to lacking Chls. The mechanisms of the tea leaf bleaching and re-greening are unknown. We detected the activity and composition of photosystem II (PSII) subunits in LS albino tea cultivar “Huangjinya” (HJY), with a normal green-leaf cultivar “Jinxuan” (JX) as control so as to find the relationship of PSII impairment to the albino phenotype in tea. The PSII of HJY is more vulnerable to HL-stress than JX. HL-induced degradation of PSII subunits CP43, CP47, PsbP, PsbR. and light-harvest chlorophyll–protein complexes led to the exposure and degradation of D1 and D2, in which partial fragments of the degraded subunits were crosslinked to form larger aggregates. Two copies of subunits PsbO, psbN, and Lhcb1 were expressed in response to HL stress. The cDNA sequencing of CP43 shows that there is no difference in sequences of PsbC cDNA and putative amino acids of CP43 between HJY and JX. The de novo synthesis and/or repair of PSII subunits is considered to be involved in the impairment of PSII complexes, and the latter played a predominant role in the albino phenotype in the LS albino tea plant. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Adaptations to Environmental Changes)
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Review

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22 pages, 3841 KiB  
Review
Genome-Wide SNP Markers Accelerate Perennial Forest Tree Breeding Rate for Disease Resistance through Marker-Assisted and Genome-Wide Selection
by Mehdi Younessi-Hamzekhanlu and Oliver Gailing
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(20), 12315; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms232012315 - 14 Oct 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2454
Abstract
The ecological and economic importance of forest trees is evident and their survival is necessary to provide the raw materials needed for wood and paper industries, to preserve the diversity of associated animal and plant species, to protect water and soil, and to [...] Read more.
The ecological and economic importance of forest trees is evident and their survival is necessary to provide the raw materials needed for wood and paper industries, to preserve the diversity of associated animal and plant species, to protect water and soil, and to regulate climate. Forest trees are threatened by anthropogenic factors and biotic and abiotic stresses. Various diseases, including those caused by fungal pathogens, are one of the main threats to forest trees that lead to their dieback. Genomics and transcriptomics studies using next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods can help reveal the architecture of resistance to various diseases and exploit natural genetic diversity to select elite genotypes with high resistance to diseases. In the last two decades, QTL mapping studies led to the identification of QTLs related to disease resistance traits and gene families and transcription factors involved in them, including NB-LRR, WRKY, bZIP and MYB. On the other hand, due to the limitation of recombination events in traditional QTL mapping in families derived from bi-parental crosses, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that are based on linkage disequilibrium (LD) in unstructured populations overcame these limitations and were able to narrow down QTLs to single genes through genotyping of many individuals using high-throughput markers. Association and QTL mapping studies, by identifying markers closely linked to the target trait, are the prerequisite for marker-assisted selection (MAS) and reduce the breeding period in perennial forest trees. The genomic selection (GS) method uses the information on all markers across the whole genome, regardless of their significance for development of a predictive model for the performance of individuals in relation to a specific trait. GS studies also increase gain per unit of time and dramatically increase the speed of breeding programs. This review article is focused on the progress achieved in the field of dissecting forest tree disease resistance architecture through GWAS and QTL mapping studies. Finally, the merit of methods such as GS in accelerating forest tree breeding programs is also discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Adaptations to Environmental Changes)
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