Evolution of drought resistance strategies following the introduction of white clover (Trifolium repens L.).

Abstract

Background and aims: Success during colonization likely depends on growing quickly and tolerating novel and stressful environmental conditions. However, rapid growth, stress avoidance, and stress tolerance are generally considered divergent physiological strategies.

Methods: We evaluate how white clover (Trifolium repens) has evolved to a divergent water regime following introduction to North America. We conduct RNAseq within a dry-down experiment utilizing accessions from low and high latitude populations from native and introduced ranges, and assess variation in dehydration avoidance (ability to avoid wilting) and dehydration tolerance (ability to survive wilting).

Key results: Introduced populations are better at avoiding dehydration, but poorer at tolerating dehydration than native populations. There is a strong negative correlation between avoidance and tolerance traits and expression of most drought-associated genes exhibits similar tradeoffs. Candidate genes with expression strongly associated with dehydration avoidance are linked to stress signaling, closing stomata, and producing osmoprotectants. However, genes with expression linked to dehydration tolerance are associated with avoiding excessive ROS production and toxic bioproducts of stress responses. Several candidate genes show differential expression patterns between native and introduced ranges, and could underlie differences in drought resistance syndromes between ranges.

Conclusions: These results suggest there has been strong selection following introduction for dehydration avoidance at the cost of surviving dehydration. More broadly, tradeoffs between dehydration avoidance and tolerance responses likely exist both at the genetic and phenotypic scales that will influence evolutionary responses and potentially limit the global spectrum of plant form and function.