Male meiotic recombination rate varies with seasonal temperature fluctuations in wild populations of autotetraploid Arabidopsis arenosa

Weitz, Andrew P.; Dukic, Marinela; Zeitler, Leo; Bomblies, Kirsten (2021). Male meiotic recombination rate varies with seasonal temperature fluctuations in wild populations of autotetraploid Arabidopsis arenosa. Molecular Ecology, 30(19), pp. 4630-4641. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1111/mec.16084

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Meiosis, the cell division by which eukaryotes produce haploid gametes, is essential for fertility in sexually reproducing species. This process is sensitive to temperature, and can fail outright at temperature extremes. At less extreme values, temperature affects the genome-wide rate of homologous recombination, which has important implications for evolution and population genetics. Numerous studies in laboratory conditions have shown that recombination rate plasticity is common, perhaps nearly universal, among eukaryotes. These studies have also shown that variation in the length or timing of stresses can strongly affect results, raising the important question whether these findings translate to more variable field conditions. Moreover, lower or higher recombination rate could cause certain kinds of meiotic aberrations, especially in polyploid species—raising the additional question whether temperature fluctuations in field conditions cause problems. Here, we tested whether (1) recombination rate varies across a season in the wild in two natural populations of autotetraploid Arabidopsis arenosa, (2) whether recombination rate correlates with temperature fluctuations in nature, and (3) whether natural temperature fluctuations might cause meiotic aberrations. We found that plants in two genetically distinct populations showed a similar plastic response with recombination rate increases correlated with both high and low temperatures. In addition, increased recombination rate correlated with increased multivalent formation, especially at lower temperature, hinting that polyploids in particular may suffer meiotic problems in conditions they encounter in nature. Our results show that studies of recombination rate plasticity done in laboratory settings inform our understanding of what happens in nature.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS)
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Ecological Genomics

UniBE Contributor:

Zeitler, Leo Christoph

Subjects:

500 Science > 580 Plants (Botany)

ISSN:

0962-1083

Publisher:

Wiley-Blackwell

Language:

English

Submitter:

Peter Alfred von Ballmoos-Haas

Date Deposited:

06 Aug 2021 16:18

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:52

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/mec.16084

PubMed ID:

34273213

Uncontrolled Keywords:

evolution; meiosis; plasticity; polyploid; recombination

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/157919

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/157919

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