Aspen Bibliography

Document Type

Article

Author ORCID Identifier

Jennifer F. L. Riehl https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8616-3569

Christopher T. Cole https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1192-6960

Hilary L. Barker https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2187-831X

Pär K. Ingvarsson https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9225-7521

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Ecology and Evolution

Volume

13

Issue

10

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

First Page

1

Last Page

23

Publication Date

9-28-2023

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Abstract

Intraspecific genetic variations in foundation species such as aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) shapes their impact on forest structure and function. Identifying genes underlying ecologically important traits is key to understanding that impact. Previous studies, using single-locus genome-wide association (GWA) analyses to identify candidate genes, have identified fewer genes than anticipated for highly heritable quantitative traits. Mounting evidence suggests that polygenic control of quantitative traits is largely responsible for this "missing heritability" phenomenon. Our research characterized the genetic architecture of 30 ecologically important traits using a common garden of aspect through genomic and transcriptomic analyses. A multilocus association model revealed that most traits displayed a highly polygenic architecture, with most variation explained by loci with small effects (likely below the detection levels of single-locus GWA methods). Consistent with a polygenic architecture, our single-locus GWA analyses found only 38 significant SNPs in 22 genes across 15 traits. Next, we used differential expression analysis on a subset of aspen genets with divergent concentrations of salicinoid phenolic glycosides (key defense traits). This complementary method to traditional GWA discovered 1243 differentially expressed genes for a polygenic trait. Soft clustering analysis revealed three gene clusters (241 candidate genes) involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis and regulation. Our work reveals that ecologically important traits governing higher-order community - and ecosystem-level attributes of a foundation forest tree species have complex underlying genetic structure and will require methods beyond traditional. GWA analyses to unravel.

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