Importance of regulation mechanisms for the climatic adaptation of tree species, an example of Picea abies - ADAPTABILITY






Characterisation of stress response
Norway spruce is the most widely planted conifer tree species in Europe. Adaptation of Norway spruce to extreme climatic conditions is generally believed to develop in the course of many generations due to the interaction of several evolutionary processes. Recent results with Norway spruce have indicated that climatic adaption can occur in only one generation in response to the climatic conditions during sexual reproduction. The so-called "aftereffects" seem to determine beside natural selection during various ontogenetic stages the environmental performance of many adaptive traits in Norway spruce. We have shown in clonal spruce trees exposed to a hostile environment at high altitude that low plant performance was associated with failure of glutathione reductase activities or that in drought-stressed oak seedlings maintenance of SOD activity was most important for preventing injury. The potential capacity of trees to withstand and survive in a stressfull environment were significantly affected by their antioxidative systems - either through "preformed" high cellular levels of antioxidants and enzyme activities or through the acclimatory capacity of the defense systems (i.e., the capability to adjust defense systems rapidly according to needs). Since it was unknown whether these traits are preset by "environmental imprinting" we exposed seedlings from controlled crosses to stress and study their tolerance (chorophyll fluorescence, pre-dawn water potential, elecrolyte leakage of roots, antioxidants) and combined this with transcriptional profiling.





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The project was funded by the EU.