Associação Projecto Vitó

Abstract Drought response in plants is complex, involving integration across a range of physiological processes. However, our knowledge of how different aspects of drought response are linked at the genetic level is limited. We investigated multi-trait adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana from the Cape Verde Islands (CVI). Using a high-throughput phenotyping platform that minimizes spatial heterogeneity, we measured variation in rosette area, growth rate, leaf color, water-use efficiency (WUE), and stomatal patterning under precisely controlled water conditions. Relative to the Moroccan outgroup, CVI populations evolved to be smaller rosette size with faster growth and reduced WUE, consistent with drought escape adaptation. Genome-wide association mapping revealed evidence for pleiotropy involving MPK12 (WUE, rosette area, growth rate, and leaf color), NHL26 (WUE and leaf color), SUVH4 (stomatal patterning, rosette area, and leaf color), and FRI (WUE and leaf color), along with an enrichment of signals in ABA response. This study advances our knowledge of the genetic mechanisms driving plant adaptation to novel precipitation environments. By identifying key genetic components and their contributions to multi-trait adaptation, our findings offer insights into how plants respond to environmental challenges and contribute to predicting plant responses to future climate change.

Understanding how populations adapt to abrupt environmental change is necessary to predict responses to future challenges, but identifying specific adaptive variants, quantifying their responses to selection and reconstructing their detailed histories is challenging in natural populations. Here, we use Arabidopsis from the Cape Verde Islands as a model to investigate the mechanisms of adaptation after a sudden shift to a more arid climate. We find genome-wide evidence of adaptation after a multivariate change in selection pressures. In particular, time to flowering is reduced in parallel across islands, substantially increasing fitness. This change is mediated by convergent de novo loss of function of two core flowering time genes: FRI on one island and FLC on the other. Evolutionary reconstructions reveal a case where expansion of the new populations coincided with the emergence and proliferation of these variants, consistent with models of rapid adaptation and evolutionary rescue.

Migratory marine species cross political borders and enter the high seas, where the lack of an effective global management framework for biodiversity leaves them vulnerable to threats. Here, we combine 10,108 tracks from 5775 individual birds at 87 sites with data on breeding population sizes to estimate the relative year-round importance of national jurisdictions and high seas areas for 39 species of albatrosses and large petrels. Populations from every country made extensive use of the high seas, indicating the stake each country has in the management of biodiversity in international waters. We quantified the links among national populations of these threatened seabirds and the regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) which regulate fishing in the high seas. This work makes explicit the relative responsibilities that each country and RFMO has for the management of shared biodiversity, providing invaluable information for the conservation and management of migratory species in the marine realm.