Studying altitude adaptation in plants, using Arabis alpina as a model system

High altitudes are generally associated with reduced atmospheric pressure, reduced temperature, increased radiation and extended periods of snow coverage, which can pose challenges for sessile plants. Comparative studies of plants growing at different elevations can therefore be informative to examine molecular signatures of altitude adaptation.

Arabis alpina is a good model system to understand altitude adaptation because:

• It is a diploid, perennial plant, found in diverse ecological niches and altitudes (from 500 metres up to 2900 metres above sea level)

• It is a relative of the well-studied Arabidopsis thaliana, is easy to grow in lab conditions and is also compatible for genetic transformation

• Its genome has been sequenced and annotated

• It has been well-studied for the epigenetic regulation of flowering time

To understand how epigenomic and genomic features together may facilitate altitude adaptation, we will examine their distribution in distinct populations, associations with the local environment, heritability across generations and their plasticity under altered growth environments.

Main research questions

1. How do (epi)genomes vary with altitude?

We will study genomes, epigenomes and transcriptomes of diverse Arabis alpina populations growing at different altitudes and test associations with environmental variables

2. How are these features inherited?

We will compare epigenome features in parents and offspring plants, both in the wild and under greenhouse conditions

We will use molecular biology and genetics approaches to test how epigenome features can be altered in different natural populations

3. Can we identify candidate genes that influence the epigenome for adaptation?

Ongoing experiments with Arabis alpina in the greenhouse

I am growing diverse natural populations of Arabis alpina in the greenhouse and conducting preliminary experiments to examine their methylomes and transcriptomes, as part of my ETH Career Seed Award