Environmental News Network - Geneticists Close to Grasping How Plant Communities May Adapt to Climate Change

Details: By Penn State; 09.Feb

A century after scientists first noted that the environment contributes to the evolution of adaptive differences among plant populations, scientists are on the verge of figuring out how that adaptation happens — by combining results from huge “common garden” experiments with genomic sequencing.

Cheryl Porter

A century after scientists first noted that the environment contributes to the evolution of adaptive differences among plant populations, scientists are on the verge of figuring out how that adaptation happens — by combining results from huge “common garden” experiments with genomic sequencing.

That’s the contention of Penn State molecular geneticist Jill Hamilton, a leader in a nationwide study of climate adaptation and hybridization in poplars, called PopUp Poplars. This 18-arboreta and university partnership, funded for $2.5 million over five years by the National Science Foundation, is spearheaded by Penn State, Virginia Tech, the University of Vermont and the University of Maryland.

The objective of the research is to characterize adaptive variation across natural hybrid zones between black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) and balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), explained Hamilton, director of the Schatz Center for Tree Molecular Genetics in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

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Geneticists Close to Grasping How Plant Communities May Adapt to Climate Change