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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - COPE-50 (Global Climate change impact on phenOtype and ePigenomE stability: Accessing plant adaptability through a 2050 simulation model)

Teaser

Summary

Maintaining agricultural productivity and sustainability under various climate change scenarios is critical for food security, worldwide. Existing climate simulation models forecast a shift towards the combination of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, warming climate and inconsistent precipitation regimes. A direct effect of the predicted climatic changes could be the alterations in crop physiology, growth, and productivity. These changes may negatively affect the livelihood of farming communities, resulting in decreased life quality and longevity linked to climate change, especially in developing countries. Hence, there is an urgent need to design new strategies to address this impending challenge. One of the key steps is to experimentally examine how the predicted climate will affect the performance of plants under controlled laboratory conditions. Hence, the main objective of the project COPE-50 was to evaluate the combined effects of future climatic constraints on the experimental model plant Arabidopsis and to develop a framework to assess the phenotypic performance and to identify the underlying molecular mechanisms. Overall, we found that changes in climate variables will lead to changes in plant physiology and phenology in a location-specific manner.

Work performed

We initiated the study by retrieval of the climate data from various public simulation platforms available at the World Climate Research Programme database. Based on these models, we experimentally simulated the climate regimes for two regional coordinates, i.e., Central Europe (coordinates near Berlin, Germany) and North Africa (coordinates near Rabat, Morocco). We then examined the effect of the simulated present (year 2020) and future (year 2050) climate regimes on the morphology, physiology, gene expression of Arabidopsis plants originating from Central Europe and North Africa.
The predicted future Central Europe climate will be more favorable for plant growth in terms of biomass and fruit production, while the North African climate will be more stressful (mainly owing to the increased drought) (Figure-1). We also found changes in the life cycle length and temporal shifts in flowering time and fruit ripening. For example, the vegetative growth was prolonged and flowering time was delayed under the simulated 2050 Central Europe conditions, while the plants showed early flowering under 2050 North Africa conditions. These differences correlated with the early developmental adjustments of the plant photosynthetic processes. To obtain an unbiased view of the ongoing molecular processes, we performed whole-genome expression analysis using state-of-the-art technology. This revealed hundreds of differentially expressed genes, many of which pointed towards cell cycle (microtubule movement, cell division, and cell wall organization) changes in response to the simulated 2050 climate. This analysis predicted a shift towards early cell differentiation in Central Europe 2050 conditions, which was confirmed using an independent method. Cultivation under simulated North African conditions (2020 and 2050) showed higher expression from genes associated with the production of flavonoids, which function as antioxidants and shield plants from UV-induced damages. The accumulation of flavonoids was validated also using metabolomics approach, which revealed hyper-accumulation of protective compounds such as kaempferol and cyanidin.
This provides one of the first insights into the molecular and phenotypic changes associated with climate change and sets the stage for innovative routes for sustainable crop production under fluctuating climatic conditions. Importance of this work has been acknowledged by two awards at the international conferences organized by the Society of Experimental Biology (SEB) and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). The experimental results will be published in a peer-reviewed paper and the primary data will be made available through public repositories.

Final results

The outcome of this research will act as a foundation to enable addressing how the predicted climate changes will affect crop plants. Our pioneer, innovative and advanced climate simulation platforms are expected to serve as a model to experimentally mimic plant growth under the current and the future environments. This methodology will help to assess the impacts of the predicted climate on agricultural productivity in distinct locations. In order to make this pilot study economic and to pin down the underlying molecular mechanisms, we used a non-crop plant. However, the experimental system is readily applicable to a wide range of crops. Our pilot study already generated exciting new questions. For example, we identified location-specific shifts in the date of plant maturity and flowering, which encourages us to examine the effect on crops. This is a crucial mitigating step and will ultimately assist in the selection of crop cultivars and alterations in the planting dates to balance the growth periods. Furthermore, we have employed the powerful phenotypic and molecular state of the art approaches and deciphered the untapped adaptive responses of Arabidopsis. Through the transcriptomic and metabolic network data, high-priority targets have already been identified, which will serve as a step towards developing climate-smart crops by breeding or engineering plants to maintain food security in the future. In the long run, our understanding of the climate-induced adaptation in Arabidopsis is expected to assist in the development of strategy and protection policy to abate the environmental change impacts. Therefore, the COPE-50 project strongly impacts and contributes towards solving the current and future food security issues by providing a valuable resource of data for scientists, strategy makers, and stakeholders.