Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2012
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1002662
Abstract
Organisms in the wild are subject to multiple, fluctuating environmental factors, and it is in complex natural environments that genetic regulatory networks actually function and evolve. We assessed genome-wide gene expression patterns in the wild in two natural accessions of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and examined the nature of transcriptional variation throughout its life cycle and gene expression correlations with natural environmental fluctuations. We grew plants in a natural field environment and measured genome-wide time-series gene expression from the plant shoot every three days, spanning the seedling to reproductive stages. We find that 15,352 genes were expressed in the A. thaliana shoot in the field, and accession and flowering status (vegetative versus flowering) were strong components of transcriptional variation in this plant. We identified between ~110 and 190 time-varying gene expression clusters in the field, many of which were significantly overrepresented by genes regulated by abiotic and biotic environmental stresses. The two main principal components of vegetative shoot gene expression (PCveg) correlate to temperature and precipitation occurrence in the field. The largest PCveg axes included thermoregulatory genes while the second major PCveg was associated with precipitation and contained drought-responsive genes. By exposing A. thaliana to natural environments in an open field, we provide a framework for further understanding the genetic networks that are deployed in natural environments, and we connect plant molecular genetics in the laboratory to plant organismal ecology in the wild.
Rights Information
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
PLoS Genetics, v. 8, issue 4, art. e1002662
© 2012 Richards et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Scholar Commons Citation
Richards, Christina L.; Rosas, Ulises; Banta, Joshua A.; Bhambra, Naeha; and Purugganan, Michael D., "Genome-Wide Patterns of Arabidopsis Gene Expression in Nature" (2012). Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications. 40.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/bin_facpub/40
