Transcriptomic Temperature Stress Responses Show Differentiation Between Biomes for Diverse Plants

Area of Science:

• Plant physiology
• Molecular biology
• Ecology

Background:

• Plants rely on physiological plasticity to cope with environmental extremes due to their sessile nature.
• Understanding transcriptomic responses to temperature extremes is crucial for predicting plant adaptation.
• Photosystem II thermal tolerance is a key trait for assessing plant heat resistance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate variations in transcriptomic stress responses across Australian plant species from diverse environments.
• To explore the relationship between gene expression and photosystem II thermal tolerance.
• To assess the potential of conserved transcriptomic traits for predicting plant thermal tolerance capacity.

Main Methods:

• Analyzed transcriptomic stress responses of 20 native Australian plant species using de novo transcriptome assemblies.
• Utilized 188 RNA-sequencing libraries for gene expression analysis under hot and cold temperature treatments.
• Compared gene expression patterns with photosystem II heat and cold tolerance traits.

Main Results:

• Documented conserved transcriptomic stress responses related to signaling and stress pathways, consistent with model species.
• Observed biome-specific variations in gene expression magnitude, with arid species showing distinct responses.
• Found that gene expression plasticity and photosystem II thermal tolerance plasticity were largely independent.

Conclusions:

• Conserved transcriptomic responses to temperature extremes vary among plants from different biomes.
• Transcriptomic variation offers potential for characterizing plant sensitivity to temperature extremes.
• Gene expression analysis can complement physiological traits in predicting plant thermal tolerance.