Format: ORAL

IrisSammarco1, Zuzana Mnzbergov 1,2, VtLatzel1

1 The Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), Pruhonice, Czech Republic 2 Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Climate change poses a significant threat to plant species, potentially pushing them beyond their adaptive capacities. Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, have emerged as a key mechanism enabling plants to quickly adapt to environmental changes by generating locally adapted phenotypes. These phenotypic changes can be even inherited across multiple generations, a phenomenon known as transgenerational plasticity. Specifically, the extent and ecological implications of this heritability are known to potentially differ between sexual and clonal reproductive modes. However, the impact of environmentally induced epigenetic changes on transgenerational plasticity across these reproductive modes remains poorly understood. Here, we assessed the adaptive potential of woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca), a widely distributed herb with both clonal and sexual reproductive capabilities, in the face of projected environmental conditions expected by the end of the 21st century. These conditions included a temperature rise of 4 C, an atmospheric CO2 concentration twice that of the present (800 ppm), and periodic drought periods. We quantified ecologically relevant phenotypic traits and examined whole-genome DNA methylation patterns in both parental individuals and their clonal and sexual offspring. We found evidence for transgenerational plasticity induced by the parental environment, with a stronger overall effect observed in the clonal offspring compared to the sexual offspring. These results suggest that transgenerational plasticity via DNA methylation could potentially facilitate plant adaptation to future environmental conditions, particularly in clonal species.