Arabidopsis thalianaFLICKR, SEDEER
Taking different approaches to ask the same question—how does a plant genetically adapt to climate—two research groups found that Arabidopsis thaliana, a model organism in plant studies, has numerous climate-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that help it thrive in the changing environment.
“There are a lot of people who thought there wouldn't be any signature of climate in Arabidopsis—that it is more adapted to local disturbance or local selective pressures,” said Johanna Schmitt, a study author on one of the papers and a professor at Brown University. “But these papers tell us that we can find evidence at the genetic level that climate has played a role in shaping plant fitness.”
The papers, published today (October 6) in Science, agree that the plant has adapted ...
