GONZALES-MARTINEZ S.C.

GRIVET D.

VENDRAMIN G.G.

I-Revues

373
Contributions
of candidate-gene research
to understanding the role of
genetic diversity in the adaptive
response of Mediterranean
conifers to drought
Santiago C. GONZÁLEZ-MARTÍNEZ, Delphine GRIVET
& Giovanni G. VENDRAMIN
One major feature of Mediterranean climates is the existence of sea-
sonal drought. For those trees which seeds germinate in spring or early
summer, severe droughts result in high mortality at early stages of
development and may prevent natural regeneration of the forest; also
adult trees may die, in particular when droughts are recurrent and
acute, which in turn attracts pests and diseases, resulting in forest
decline. Moreover, an indirect effect of drought is the increase in size,
intensity and recurrence of forest fires, constituting one of the major
threats to survival of Mediterranean forests. Common garden experi-
ments (provenance tests and combined provenance-progeny tests) have
shown notable genetic variation on drought response for forest trees at
the species, population and individual levels, as well as differences in
drought-response mechanisms (e.g. biomass allocation vs. water-use
efficiency). For instance, studies reporting estimates of additive
variance for water use efficiency (WUE) at the population and family
level in Mediterranean pines have shown phenotypic clines from south
to north in Aleppo pine, a xeric species with wide distribution in the
Mediterranean (VOLTAS et al. 2008). New approaches based on DNA
sequencing of candidate genes (i.e. genes potentially involved in the
expression of a trait of interest) hold promise to evaluate the levels of
Mediterranean Forest Week of Antalya
forêt méditerranéenne t. XXXI, n° 4, décembre 2010
374
Mediterranean Forest Week of Antalya
adaptive genetic variation present in
Mediterranean forest trees. The existence of
genetic diversity for drought-related traits
(and the underlying molecular variation) is
important as adaptation mostly relies on
standing genetic variation (and less in new
mutations). Moreover, given the rapid cli-
mate change expected in the near future —
especially in the Mediterranean basin where
a substantial decrease in precipitation and a
pronounced warming is expected (GIORGI and
LIONELLO 2008) — the ability of forest trees
for short-term genetic change is of para-
mount importance. This fact is even more
true if we consider that recent estimates of
forest tree migration rates and climate
change velocity suggest that most forest
trees will not be able to migrate at the neces-
sary speed to track ecological optima, the
only other alternative left being either to
adapt in situ or to go extinct (PETIT et al.
2008; AITKEN et al. 2008).
In this paper, we present a brief summary
of our on-going population genetics studies
on drought-response candidate genes for two
widespread Mediterranean pines, the mari-
time (Pinus pinaster Aiton) and the Aleppo
(Pinus halepensis Mill.) pines. Maritime (or
cluster) pine is restricted to the Western
Mediterranean, its southern natural popula-
tions reaching the High Atlas in Morocco.
Three main gene pools have been identified
in this species based on neutral molecular
markers (BURBAN & PETIT 2003; BUCCI et al.
2008): a western group (most of the Iberian
Peninsula and western France), an eastern
group (Corsica, Mediterranean France, Italy
and Tunisia) and, curiously, an additional
group composed by highly-differentiated
populations from Morocco. Fossil evidence
and phylogenetic inference have shown that
this species has long-term presence in the
western Mediterranean, in particular in the
Iberian Peninsula (JARAMILLO-CORREA et al.
2010). Aleppo pine, on the contrary, seems to
be a recent colonizer of the western
Mediterranean, which may have important
consequences for its adaptability within this
range as colonization was accompanied by a
substantial reduction of its genetic variation
(see below). Still, this species harbors large
amounts of genetic diversity within its eas-
tern native distribution (mainly Greece and,
more marginally, Turkey).
The increasing availability of genomic
resources in conifer species makes
approaches based on candidate gene sequen-
cing appealing, despite the large genome size
of these species (ca. seven times the human
genome). Currently, different American and
European initiatives have been launched to
obtain the first complete sequence of a coni-
fer genome. Our approach is based on the
selection of candidate genes for relevant
adaptive traits, in this case response or tole-
rance to drought. In the pine studies repor-
ted here (see details in GRIVET et al. 2009,
2010 and JARAMILLO-CORREA et al. 2010), we
have focused on gene families that are
known to be over-expressed during drought
Fig. 1:
Distribution map
of P. halepensis (kindly
provided by EUFORGEN,
the European program for
Conservation of Forest
Genetic Resources) along
with the average nucleo-
tide diversity (estimated
by pi, the within-popula-
tion average pairwise dif-
ference across sequences)
of ten drought-response
candidate genes (the size
of the circles is proportio-
nal to the level of nucleo-
tide diversity).
375
stress and the subsequent recovery phase
(such as different dehydrins) as well as some
genes with major roles in more general path-
ways for stress response (such as 4-couma-
rate:CoA ligase, 4CL, gene). These genes
have also some functional links with general
drought responses that have been reported
in model species, in particular Arabidopsis
and different crops. For example, the dehy-
drins act as structural stabilizers with cha-
perone-like properties in several plant spe-
cies (CLOSE 1997). Once a set of relevant
genes is selected, we then proceeded to
obtain a sample of sequences at the popula-
tion level (typically, ten megagametophytes,
the haploid tissue in pine seeds, are sequen-
ced for each population) covering the full
range of the species and targeting contrasted
populations. For instance, 77 to 122 indivi-
duals (depending on the gene) were sequen-
ced in maritime pine including populations
from the humid coastal Atlantic range
(1235 mm of annual rainfall) and the arid
one in southern Spain (357 mm of annual
rainfall). Finally, a series of new generation
neutrality tests (such as Zeng’s compound
tests, ZENG et al. 2007) were performed to
detect signatures of selection acting at diffe-
rent temporal scales; we also searched for
correlations between allele/haplotype fre-
quencies in candidate genes and climate
variables under the assumption that such
correlations may unveil genes underlying
adaptation to environmental heterogeneity.
Higher levels of nucleotide diversity in
candidate genes for drought response were
present in P. pinaster than in P. halepensis,
despite its narrower range in the
Mediterranean. Differences across species
were also reflected in the haplotype distribu-
tion for each tree species, with P. pinaster
showing many different haplotypes at simi-
lar frequencies and P. halepensis showing
fewer haplotypes with only one that is com-
mon or even fixed. The low levels of nucleo-
tide diversity in Aleppo pine are more noti-
ceable in its western distribution (see Figure
1 and GRIVET et al. 2009) where most genes
were fixed or almost fixed for particular
haplotypes (Figure 2), a probable conse-
quence of long-range colonization of the
Western Mediterranean from ancient Aleppo
pine populations in Greece and Turkey and a
more acute impact of the Ice Ages in this
range of the species. Molecular analyses also
revealed intense and relatively recent bottle-
necks in Aleppo pine as well as a time of
split between North-African and Iberian
populations of the species well predating the
Last Glacial Maximum albeit not as old as
the one estimated for maritime pine
(JARAMILLO-CORREA et al. 2010). In contrast,
maritime pine seems to harbor large
amounts of diversity for these genes due to a
more stable demography; in addition,
because of its more mesic distribution,
higher environmental heterogeneity (from
xeric to humid) would have resulted in
Mediterranean Forest Week of Antalya
Fig. 2:
Haplotype distribution of
the candidate gene dhn1
superimposed on the dis-
tribution map of P. hale-
pensis. Notice the low
diversity for this gene in
the western area.
376
Mediterranean Forest Week of Antalya
contrasted selective pressures that may have
increased general levels of diversity at candi-
date genes.
Drought response is a very complex trait,
as forest trees use very different strategies to
confront drought. In addition, response to
drought involves several cross-talking and
incompletely known metabolic pathways.
This obvious “polygenic” nature of drought
response predicts the existence of only few
genes with major effects whereas most of the
drought-related processes would be control-
led by large amounts of genes with minor
effects and their interactions. Extensive can-
didate gene dissection of drought traits is
still lacking for most forest trees, but judging
from other better-known traits, polymor-
phisms in candidate genes with phenotypic
effects higher than 5% of the trait variance
would be rare (see, for instance, GONZÁLEZ-
MARTÍNEZ et al. 2007 for wood property traits
or HOLLIDAY et al. 2010 for bud set and cold
tolerance). Nevertheless, using a wide range
of neutrality tests, we found some of the can-
didate genes studied to evolve in non-neutral
patterns. Interestingly, two of them showed
statistical correlation with temperature
variables, in particular with extremely high
or low temperatures, and may constitute
valuable tools for monitoring adaptive gene-
tic diversity in these two Mediterranean
pines.
Conclusions
Although, so far, discovery of adaptive
variation at the molecular level (i.e. functio-
nal markers) is progressing slowly in non-
model species, early works as the one pre-
sented here show the great potential of these
tools in detecting valuable populations for
genetic conservation as well as the environ-
mental drivers promoting adaptation in
forest trees. The development of new high-
throughput sequencing and genotyping tech-
niques will facilitate in the near future the
extension of candidate gene approaches to
full-genome screens. Research based on func-
tional markers also holds promise for pheno-
type prediction in breeding programs and
operative plantations. In the future, it is
expected that molecular techniques based on
candidate gene polymorphisms will be used
to monitor changes in genetic composition of
populations through time and space, and for
the evaluation of the genetic response of
forest trees to impending climate and envi-
ronmental change.
S.G.M., D.G., G.V.
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Santiago C
GONZÁLEZ-MARTÍNEZ
Delphine GRIVET
Department of Forest
Ecology and Genetics,
Center of Forest
Research (CIFOR),
INIA, Madrid (Spain)
Email:
santiago@inia.es
Giovanni G.
VENDRAMIN
Plant Genetics
Institute, Division of
Florence, National
Research Council,
Sesto Fiorentino
Florence
Italy
forêt méditerranéenne t. XXXI, n° 4, décembre 2010


Contributions of candidate-gene research to understanding the role of genetic diversity in the adaptative response of Mediterranean conifers to drought -

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Contributions of candidate-gene research to understanding the role of genetic diversity in the adaptative response of Mediterranean conifers to drought -

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