Miryeganeh Matin, Armitage David W
Integrative Community Ecology Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna-son, Okinawa, 904-0495, Japan.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2025 Feb;100(1):131-148. doi: 10.1111/brv.13132. Epub 2024 Aug 27.
In long-lived tree populations, when environmental change outpaces rates of evolutionary adaptation, plasticity in traits related to stress tolerance, dormancy, and dispersal may be vital for preventing extinction. While a population's genetic background partly determines its ability to adapt to a changing environment, so too do the many types of epigenetic modifications that occur within and among populations, which vary on timescales orders of magnitude faster than the emergence of new beneficial alleles. Consequently, phenotypic plasticity driven by epigenetic modification may be especially critical for sessile, long-lived organisms such as trees that must rely on this plasticity to keep pace with rapid anthropogenic environmental change. While studies have reported large effects of DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNAs on the expression of stress-tolerance genes and resulting phenotypic responses, little is known about the role of these effects in non-model plants and particularly in trees. Here, we review new findings in plant epigenetics with particular relevance to the ability of trees to adapt to or escape stressors associated with rapid climate change. Such findings include specific epigenetic influences over drought, heat, and salinity tolerance, as well as dormancy and dispersal traits. We also highlight promising findings concerning transgenerational inheritance of an epigenetic 'stress memory' in plants. As epigenetic information is becoming increasingly easy to obtain, we close by outlining ways in which ecologists can use epigenetic information better to inform population management and forecasting efforts. Understanding the molecular mechanisms behind phenotypic plasticity and stress memory in tree species offers a promising path towards a mechanistic understanding of trees' responses to climate change.
在长寿树木种群中，当环境变化速度超过进化适应速度时，与胁迫耐受性、休眠和扩散相关的性状可塑性对于防止灭绝可能至关重要。虽然种群的遗传背景部分决定了其适应变化环境的能力，但种群内部和种群之间发生的多种表观遗传修饰也起着同样重要的作用，这些修饰在时间尺度上比新的有益等位基因出现的速度快几个数量级。因此，由表观遗传修饰驱动的表型可塑性对于像树木这样的固着、长寿生物可能尤为关键，因为它们必须依靠这种可塑性来跟上快速的人为环境变化。虽然研究报告了DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰和非编码RNA对应激耐受基因表达和由此产生的表型反应有很大影响，但对于这些影响在非模式植物尤其是树木中的作用知之甚少。在这里，我们综述了植物表观遗传学的新发现，这些发现与树木适应或逃避与快速气候变化相关的应激源的能力特别相关。这些发现包括表观遗传对干旱、高温和盐胁迫耐受性以及休眠和扩散性状的特定影响。我们还强调了关于植物表观遗传“应激记忆”的跨代遗传的有前景的发现。随着表观遗传信息越来越容易获得，我们最后概述了生态学家可以更好地利用表观遗传信息为种群管理和预测工作提供信息的方法。了解树种表型可塑性和应激记忆背后的分子机制为从机制上理解树木对气候变化的反应提供了一条有前景的途径。
