Transgenerational plasticity under environmental change: A multi-species study testing maternal effects of chronic dryness and wetness, of extreme pulsed stress and of competition change
Final Report Abstract
Plant stress memory and especially transgenerational adaptive effects might be important mechanisms to adjust to rapidly changing environmental conditions, for instance to drought and waterlogging stress, that are projected to become more frequent under climate change. Because many types of stress cause oxidative stress at a cell level, the anti-oxidative system might play an important role in stress memory. Because of these common molecular mechanisms of many types of stress, crossstress memory might prime plants experiencing stress to any other type of stress, making plants previously subjected to stress more successful under recurring stress, irrespective of stress type. In this project, we found evidence for transgenerational adaptive effects only for few species. We further could not confirm the existence of a cross-stress memory. We could show that the anti-oxidative system plays an important role for within- and transgenerational stress memory. For instance, plants experiencing drought stress before had higher Chlorophyll b, Rubisco and SOD content compared to previously unstressed plants under recurring drought. Further, the offspring of one species whose mother experienced stress before showed less tissue damage and higher amounts of anti-oxidative enzymes. Contrasting our expectations, we could not confirm that maternal effects are more prevalent for short-dispersing seeds or species. We could also not confirm a role of the competitive environment of mothers for offspring performance. Surprisingly, one of our studies confirmed the existence of transgenerational adaptive effects for four perennial species, while the other study incorporation seven different species, did not. One underlying reason might be that maternal stress lasted over several years in the first study and that in the second study, offspring was grown under very different conditions than their mothers, due to the pandemic. We were further surprised to see clear evidence for a role of the anti-oxidative system for plant stress memory.
Publications
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Plant stress memory is linked to high levels of anti-oxidative enzymes over several weeks. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 178, 104166.
Lukić, Nataša; Kukavica, Biljana; Davidović-Plavšić, Biljana; Hasanagić, Dino & Walter, Julia
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Seed dispersal by wind decreases when plants are water‐stressed, potentially counteracting species coexistence and niche evolution. Ecology and Evolution, 11(22), 16239-16249.
Zhu, Jinlei; Lukić, Nataša; Rajtschan, Verena; Walter, Julia & Schurr, Frank M.
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The role of maternal environment and dispersal ability in plants' transgenerational plasticity. Oikos, 2023(8).
Lukić, Nataša; Zhu, Jinlei; Schurr, Frank M. & Walter, Julia
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Transgenerational stress memory in plants is mediated by upregulation of the antioxidative system. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 205, 105129.
Lukić, Nataša; Schurr, Frank M.; Trifković, Tanja; Kukavica, Biljana & Walter, Julia
