Kremer Antoine, Chen Jun, Lascoux Martin
UMR BIOGECO, INRAE, Université de Bordeaux, Cestas, 33612, France.
College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
New Phytol. 2025 Jun;246(5):1934-1951. doi: 10.1111/nph.70108. Epub 2025 Apr 7.
Forest trees are foundation species of many ecosystems and are challenged by global environmental changes. We assemble genetic facts and arguments supporting or undermining resilient responses of forest trees to those changes. Genetic resilience is understood here as the capacity of a species to restore its adaptive potential following environmental changes and disturbances. Importantly, the data come primarily from European temperate tree species with large distributions and consider only marginally species with small distributions. We first examine historical trajectories of trees during repeated climatic changes. Species that survived the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition and underwent the oscillations of glacial and interglacial periods were equipped with life history traits enhancing persistence and resilience. Evidence of their resilience also comes from the maintenance of large effective population sizes across time and rapid microevolutionary responses to recent climatic events. We then review genetic mechanisms and attributes shaping resilient responses. Usually, invoked constraints to resilience, such as genetic load or generation time and overlap, have limited consequences or are offset by positive impacts. Conversely, genetic plasticity, gene flow, introgression, genetic architecture of fitness-related traits and demographic dynamics strengthen resilience by accelerating adaptive responses. Finally, we address the limitations of this review and highlight critical research gaps.
森林树木是许多生态系统的基础物种，正面临全球环境变化的挑战。我们收集了支持或削弱森林树木对这些变化做出适应性反应的遗传事实和论据。这里的遗传适应能力被理解为一个物种在环境变化和干扰后恢复其适应潜力的能力。重要的是，数据主要来自分布广泛的欧洲温带树种，而分布范围小的物种仅被略微考虑。我们首先研究树木在反复气候变化期间的历史轨迹。在上新世 - 更新世过渡中幸存下来并经历了冰川期和间冰期振荡的物种，具备增强持久性和适应能力的生活史特征。它们适应能力的证据还来自于长期维持的较大有效种群规模以及对近期气候事件的快速微进化反应。然后，我们回顾了塑造适应性反应的遗传机制和特性。通常，被认为对适应能力有制约作用的因素，如遗传负荷、世代时间和重叠，其影响有限或被积极影响所抵消。相反，遗传可塑性、基因流动、基因渗入、与适应性相关性状的遗传结构以及种群动态通过加速适应性反应来增强适应能力。最后，我们阐述了本综述的局限性，并强调了关键的研究空白。
