Abstract
Identifying the physiological and genetic basis of stress tolerance in plants has proven to be critical to understanding adaptation in both agricultural and natural systems. However, many discoveries were initially made in the controlled conditions of greenhouses or laboratories, not in the field. To test the comparability of drought responses across field and greenhouse environments, we undertook three independent experiments using the switchgrass reference genotype Alamo AP13. We analyzed physiological and gene expression variation across four locations, two sampling times, and three years. Relatively similar physiological responses and expression coefficients of variation across experiments masked highly dissimilar gene expression responses to drought. Critically, a drought experiment utilizing small pots in the greenhouse elicited nearly identical physiological changes as an experiment conducted in the field, but an order of magnitude more differentially expressed genes. However, we were able to define a suite of several hundred genes that were differentially expressed across all experiments. This list was strongly enriched in photosynthesis, water status, and reactive oxygen species responsive genes. The strong across-experiment correlations between physiological plasticity-but not differential gene expression-highlight the complex and diverse genetic mechanisms that can produce phenotypically similar responses to various soil water deficits.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Physiological responses and expression coefficients of variation were relatively similar across experiments despite dissimilar drought gene expression responses.
- Taxon
- switchgrass
Panicum virgatumt0 - Outcome
- physiological responses and expression coefficients of variatione0
- Direction
- Relatively similare0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Relatively similar physiological responses and expression coefficients of variation across experiments masked highly dissimilar gene expression responses to drought.”
t0“switchgrass”
Claim · model-written summary
Drought gene expression responses were highly dissimilar across experiments.
- Taxon
- switchgrassPanicum virgatumt0
- Outcome
- gene expression responses to droughte0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Relatively similar physiological responses and expression coefficients of variation across experiments masked highly dissimilar gene expression responses to drought.”
t0“switchgrass”
Claim · model-written summary
Small greenhouse pots elicited nearly identical physiological changes to the field experiment.
- Taxon
- switchgrassPanicum virgatumt0
- Treatment
- droughte0
- Outcome
- physiological changese0
- Direction
- nearly identicale0
- Comparator
- fielde0
- Setting
- greenhousee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Critically, a drought experiment utilizing small pots in the greenhouse elicited nearly identical physiological changes as an experiment conducted in the field, but an order of magnitude more differentially expressed genes.”
t0“switchgrass”
Claim · model-written summary
The greenhouse small-pot drought experiment had an order of magnitude more differentially expressed genes than the field experiment.
- Taxon
- switchgrassPanicum virgatumt0
- Treatment
- droughte0
- Outcome
- differentially expressed genese0
- Direction
- moree0
- Value
- an order of magnitudee0
- Comparator
- fielde0
- Setting
- greenhousee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Critically, a drought experiment utilizing small pots in the greenhouse elicited nearly identical physiological changes as an experiment conducted in the field, but an order of magnitude more differentially expressed genes.”
t0“switchgrass”
Claim · model-written summary
Several hundred genes were differentially expressed in all experiments.
- Taxon
- switchgrassPanicum virgatumt0
- Outcome
- differentially expressede0
- Value
- several hundred genese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“However, we were able to define a suite of several hundred genes that were differentially expressed across all experiments.”
t0“switchgrass”
Claim · model-written summary
The shared gene list was strongly enriched in photosynthesis, water status and reactive oxygen species responsive genes.
- Taxon
- switchgrassPanicum virgatumt0
- Outcome
- photosynthesis, water status, and reactive oxygen species responsive genese0
- Direction
- strongly enrichede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“This list was strongly enriched in photosynthesis, water status, and reactive oxygen species responsive genes.”
t0“switchgrass”
Claim · model-written summary
Physiological plasticity had strong across-experiment correlations, whereas differential gene expression did not.
- Taxon
- switchgrassPanicum virgatumt0
- Treatment
- soil water deficitse0
- Outcome
- physiological plasticitye0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The strong across-experiment correlations between physiological plasticity-but not differential gene expression-highlight the complex and diverse genetic mechanisms that can produce phenotypically similar responses to various soil water deficits.”
t0“switchgrass”
Claim · model-written summary
Diverse genetic mechanisms can produce phenotypically similar responses to soil water deficits.
- Taxon
- switchgrassPanicum virgatumt0
- Outcome
- phenotypically similar responsese0
- Qualifier
- complex and diverse genetic mechanismse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The strong across-experiment correlations between physiological plasticity-but not differential gene expression-highlight the complex and diverse genetic mechanisms that can produce phenotypically similar responses to various soil water deficits.”
t0“switchgrass”