Climate change and epigenetics: Unraveling the role of methylation in response to thermal instability in the Antarctic plant Colobanthus quitensis.

Low temperatures are one of the critical conditions affecting the performance and distribution of plants. Exposure to cooling results in the reprogramming of gene expression, which in turn would be mediated by epigenetic regulation. Antarctica is known as one of the most severe ecosystems, but several climate models predict an increase in average temperature, which may positively impact the development of Antarctic plants; however, under warmer temperatures, plants' vulnerability to damages from low-temperature events increases.

Molecular and structural characterization of expansins modulated by fungal endophytes in the Antarctic Colobanthus quitensis (Kunth) Bartl. Exposed to drought stress.

Expansins are proteins involved in cell wall metabolism that play an important role in plant growth, development, fruit ripening and abiotic stress tolerance. In the present study, we analyzed putative expansins that respond to drought stress. Five expansin genes were identified in cDNA libraries isolated from Colobanthus quitensis gown either with or without endophytic fungi under hydric stress.

What if the cold days return? Epigenetic mechanisms in plants to cold tolerance.

The epigenetic could be an important, but seldom assessed, mechanisms in plants inhabiting cold ecosystems. Thus, this review could help to fill a gap in the current literature. Low temperatures are one of the most critical environmental conditions that negatively affect the growth, development, and geographic distribution of plants.

Fungal Endophytes Exert Positive Effects on Under Water Stress but Neutral Under a Projected Climate Change Scenario in Antarctica.

Functional symbiosis is considered one of the successful mechanisms by which plants that inhabit extreme environment improve their ability to tolerate different types of stress. One of the most conspicuous type of symbiosis is the endophyticism. This interaction has been noted to play a role in the adaptation of the native vascular plant to the stressful environments of Antarctica, characterized by low temperatures and extreme aridity.

Is the Success of Plant Invasions the Result of Rapid Adaptive Evolution in Seed Traits? Evidence from a Latitudinal Rainfall Gradient.

It has been widely suggested that invasion success along broad environmental gradients may be partially due to phenotypic plasticity, but rapid evolution could also be a relevant factor for invasions. Seed and fruit traits can be relevant for plant invasiveness since they are related to dispersal, germination, and fitness. Some seed traits vary along environmental gradients and can be heritable, with the potential to evolve by means of natural selection.

Asymmetric responses to simulated global warming by populations of along a latitudinal gradient.

The increase in temperature as consequence of the recent global warming has been reported to generate new ice-free areas in the Antarctic continent, facilitating the colonization and spread of plant populations. Consequently, Antarctic vascular plants have been observed extending their southern distribution. But as the environmental conditions toward southern localities become progressively more departed from the species' physiological optimum, the ecophysiological responses and survival to the expected global warming could be reduced.