A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Genotypic responses to different environments and reduced precipitation reveal signals of local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in woodland strawberry




AuthorsDe-la-Cruz, Ivan M; Batsleer, Femke; Bonte, Dries; Diller, Carolina; Hytönen, Timo; Izquierdo, José Luis; Osorio, Sonia; Posé, David; de la Rosa, Aurora; Vandegehuchte, Martijn L; Muola, Anne; Stenberg, Johan A

PublisherOxford University Press (OUP)

Publication year2025

JournalAnnals of Botany

Journal name in sourceAnnals of Botany

Journal acronymAnn Bot

ISSN0305-7364

eISSN1095-8290

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf025

Web address https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf025

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/491572574


Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Climate change is causing increasing temperatures and drought, creating new environmental conditions, which species must cope with. Plant species can respond to these shifting environments by escaping to more favorable environments, undergoing adaptive evolution, or exhibiting phenotypic plasticity. In this study, we investigate genotype responses to variation in environmental conditions (genotype-by-environment interactions; G × E) over multiple years to gain insights into the plasticity and potential adaptive responses of plants to environmental changes in the face of climate change.

METHODS

We reciprocally transplanted 16 European genotypes of Fragaria vesca (Rosaceae), the woodland strawberry, between four sites along a latitudinal gradient from 40°N (Spain) to 70°N (northern Finland). We examined G × E interactions in plant performance traits (fruit and stolon production and rosette size) under ambient weather conditions and a reduced precipitation treatment (as a proxy for drought), at these sites over two years.

KEY RESULTS

Our findings reveal signals of local adaptation for fruit production at the latitudinal extremes of F. vesca distribution. No clear signals of local adaptation for stolon production were detected. Genotypes from higher European latitudes were generally smaller than genotypes from lower latitudes across almost all sites, years and both treatments, indicating a strong genetic control of plant size in these genotypes. We found mixed responses to reduced precipitation: while several genotypes exhibited poorer performance under the reduced precipitation treatment across most sites and years, with the effect being most pronounced at the driest site, other genotypes responded to reduced precipitation by increasing fruit and/or stolon production and/or growing larger across most sites and years, particularly at the wettest site.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides insights into the influence of different environments on plant performance at a continental scale. While woodland strawberry seems locally adapted in more extreme environments, reduced precipitation results in winners and losers among its genotypes. This may ultimately reduce genetic variation in the face of increasing drought frequency and severity, with implications for the species' capacity to adapt.


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Funding information in the publication
This project was funded by the European Commission (BiodivERsA project PlantCline: Adapting plant genetic diversity to climate change along a continental latitudinal gradient, project ID BiodivClim-177), Formas (the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development, grant no. 2020–02376), the Academy of Finland (grant no. 344726), the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO ERANET G0H6520N and FWO KAN 1506619N), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (grant no. PCI2020-120719- 2). We thank Juan Antonio Vielva Juez, Director of the Centro de Investigación, Seguimiento y Evaluación del Parque Nacional de la Sierra de Guadarrama, Madrid, Spain, and Kevo Subarctic Research Institute, University of Turku, Finland, for hosting the southernmost (Rascafría/Spain) and northernmost (Kevo/northern Finland) study sites as well as for logistic support during the experiment. We thank Hans Matheve for helping with fieldwork and data digitalization and Sanne de Jong, Matilda Jützeler and several other assistant researchers who helped us to collect the data during fieldwork. We really appreciate the valuable revisions, time and suggestions of the handling editor Dr. Hilary Rogers and one anonymous reviewer from Annals of Botany to improve this manuscript.


Last updated on 2025-28-05 at 13:10