Pazzaglia Jessica, Badalamenti Fabio, Bernardeau-Esteller Jaime, Ruiz Juan M, Giacalone Vincenzo Maximiliano, Procaccini Gabriele, Marín-Guirao Lazaro
Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, 80121 Naples, Italy; Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy.
Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, 80121 Naples, Italy; CNR-IAS, Lungomare Cristoforo Colombo 4521, 90149 Palermo, Italy.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2022 Jan;174:113164. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113164. Epub 2021 Dec 2.
Seawater warming and increased incidence of marine heatwaves (MHW) are threatening the integrity of coastal marine habitats including seagrasses, which are particularly vulnerable to climate changes. Novel stress tolerance-enhancing strategies, including thermo-priming, have been extensively applied in terrestrial plants for enhancing resilience capacity under the re-occurrence of a stress event. We applied, for the first time in seedlings of the Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica, a thermo-priming treatment through the exposure to a simulated warming event. We analyzed the photo-physiological and growth performance of primed and non-primed seedlings, and the gene expression responses of selected genes (i.e. stress-, photosynthesis- and epigenetic-related genes). Results revealed that during the re-occurring stress event, primed seedlings performed better than unprimed showing unaltered photo-physiology supported by high expression levels of genes related to stress response, photosynthesis, and epigenetic modifications. These findings offer new opportunities to improve conservation and restoration efforts in a future scenario of environmental changes.
海水变暖和海洋热浪（MHW）发生率的增加正威胁着包括海草在内的沿海海洋栖息地的完整性，海草尤其容易受到气候变化的影响。包括热激预处理在内的新型胁迫耐受性增强策略已在陆地植物中广泛应用，以增强胁迫事件再次发生时的恢复能力。我们首次在地中海海草大叶藻的幼苗中应用了热激预处理，通过使其暴露于模拟变暖事件来进行处理。我们分析了经过预处理和未经过预处理的幼苗的光生理和生长表现，以及所选基因（即与胁迫、光合作用和表观遗传相关的基因）的基因表达反应。结果表明，在再次发生胁迫事件期间，经过预处理的幼苗表现优于未经过预处理的幼苗，其光生理未受影响，这得益于与胁迫反应、光合作用和表观遗传修饰相关基因的高表达水平。这些发现为在未来环境变化的情况下改进保护和恢复工作提供了新的机会。
