SCIENCE@home

Variation in responses to temperature across admixed genotypes of Populus trichocarpa × P. balsamifera predict geographic shifts in regions where hybrids are favored

Alayna Mead,Joie R. Beasley-Bennett,Andrew Bleich,Dylan G. Fischer,Shelby A. Flint,Julie Golightly,L. Kalcsits,Sara K. Klopf,M. Kulbaba,Jesse R. Lasky,J. LeBoldus,David B. Lowry,Nora Mitchell,Emily V. Moran,Jason P. Sexton,K. Søndreli,Baxter Worthing,Michelle Zavala-Paez,Matthew C. Fitzpatrick,Jason Holliday,Stephen Keller,Jill A. Hamilton

Published 2025 in bioRxiv

ABSTRACT

Plastic responses of plants to their environment vary as a result of genetic differentiation within and among species. To accurately predict rangewide responses to climate change, it is necessary to characterize genotype-specific reaction norms across the continuum of historic and future climate conditions comprising a species’ range. The North American hybrid zone of Populus trichocarpa and P. balsamifera represents a natural system that has been shaped by climate, geography, and introgression. We leverage a dataset containing 45 clonal genotypes from this natural hybrid zone, planted across 17 replicated common garden experiments spanning a broad climatic range. Growth and mortality were measured over two years, enabling us to model reaction norms for each genotype across these tested environments. Species ancestry and intraspecific genomic variation significantly influenced growth across environments, with genotypic variation in reaction norms reflecting a trade-off between cold tolerance and growth. Using modeled reaction norms for each genotype, we predicted that genotypes with more P. trichocarpa ancestry may gain an advantage under warmer climates. Spatial shifts of the hybrid zone could facilitate the spread of beneficial alleles into novel climates. These results highlight that genotypic variation in responses to temperature will have landscape-level effects.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-97 of 97 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY