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Reversible Burst of Transcriptional Changes during Induction of Crassulacean Acid Metabolism in Talinum triangulare.

Reversible Burst of Transcriptional Changes during Induction of Crassulacean Acid Metabolism in Talinum triangulare.

Integrating landscape transcriptomics approach, in-situ trait phenotyping, and machine learning to unravel genes associated with ecologically relevant traits.

As environmental change accelerates in the Anthropocene, a central challenge in evolutionary biology is understanding how populations respond to novel and rapidly changing conditions. Adaptation underpins whether species can persist and diverge under increasingly variable selective pressures. While adaptive potential is often inferred from phenotypic change or standing genetic variation, it remains unclear what determines the evolutionary “fuel” that enables sustained response. Using Arabidopsis species as model systems, this thesis examines the genetic basis of adaptation and how variation is generated and structured across biological scales, from life-history traits to gene expression and genomic interactions, with a particular focus on how genetic architecture shapes the pace and predictability of evolutionary change.

Together, this work conceptualises adaptive potential as an emergent population-level property arising from interactions among ecological traits, genetic architecture, molecular regulation, and environmental context. Adaptive potential depends not on the amount of variation present, but on its structure, heritability, and exposure to selection across evolutionary timescales.

Seeds should not germinate in conditions unsuitable for seedling growth. Dormancy, which allows seeds to remain inactive in an environment that would otherwise enable germination, helps optimise the timing of germination. Primary dormancy, developed during seed maturation on the parent plant, prevents immediate germination post-dispersal, regardless of external conditions. Secondary dormancy, however, is triggered post-dispersal when seeds face unfavourable conditions, enabling them to re-enter dormancy even if initially non-dormant. This mechanism allows seeds to fine-tune germination according to environmental conditions. In this study, we examined the role of heat-induced secondary dormancy in local adaptation by analysing natural variations within 361 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions from across Europe. We discovered that secondary dormancy acquisition varies with primary dormancy levels and after-ripening. Both primary and heat-induced secondary dormancy exhibited adaptive clines along temperature and precipitation gradients, with secondary dormancy showing a steeper cline, indicating its significant role in local adaptation. Using species distribution models, we predicted that genotypes with high secondary dormancy would show greater resilience to future climate changes. Additionally, we identified specific genomic regions controlling secondary dormancy levels including a novel candidate gene for secondary dormancy variation. Our findings show that secondary dormancy is a complex adaptive mechanism and a predominant contributor to the dormancy trait syndrome that favours plant survival in habitats exposed to harsh summers.

A chromosome-scale genome assembly of Hordeum erectifolium: genomic, transcriptomic and anatomical adaptations to drought in a wild barley relative

This ARC contains data and instruction to recapitulate bioinformatics pipelines excecuted in the manuscript [comment: insert final link] Cis-regulatory architecture downstream of FLOWERING LOCUS T underlies quantitative control of flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana by Hao-Ran Zhou (周豪然), Duong Thi Hai Doan, Thomas Hartwig and Franziska Turck, published in Genome Biology (2026).

Morphological and Physiological Traits Associated with Yield under Reduced Irrigation in Chilean Coastal Lowland Quinoa

Early patterning of organ primordia during barley meristem development uncovered by imputation of gene expression at single cell level.

Artificial Soil (ArtSoil): recreating soil conditions in synthetic plant growth media

A new series of ultrasensitive and ratiometric genetically encoded nanosensors https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.27.678933