Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Activity 2021
“Climate Change and Genetics of Plant Responses to Seasonal Cues“
Sydney Behlman
Senior, Biology, Psychology
Abstract
Annual plants respond to environmental cues to determine the time of year and therefore, whether they should be germinating, growing or reproducing. We explored the genetic potential of four strains of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana to respond to normal environmental cues and abnormal combinations of cues. There are two combinations of cues A. thaliana populations respond to in different ways (fall germinating cues and spring germinating cues). Seeds may respond to decreasing photoperiods (~14 hrs) and temperatures to germinate in the fall which causes seedlings to experience cold temperatures in winter (vernalization) before flowering in the spring. In contrast, some strains’ seeds are insensitive to fall cues and instead winters cold temperatures and increasing photoperiods (~14 hours) of spring induce germination and accelerated growth and flowering. Warming trends could extend summer-like temperatures into the shorter photoperiods of fall and spring. We wanted to find out which components of seasonal cues (and their genetic pathways) were most responsible for plant responses to normal cue combinations. These results might help us determine which stages of a plant’s life and season will be most affected by climate change.
What Do You Think?
We encourage you to leave a respectful note, thought or comment with the presenter(s) below as a means of engaging with them. Your responses are appreciated and the presenter(s) will be participating in the conversation.
9 Comments
Submit a Comment
Thank you for visiting Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Activity!
We hope you are inspired by the excellence and hard work of UW Oshkosh Titans.
Office of Student Research and Creative Activity
Dempsey Hall 317
osrca@uwosh.edu
(920) 424-1195
Interesting research! I enjoyed your clear description of the project and also found Figure 1 very helpful.
This question may be beyond the scope of your project, but what is the cold tolerance of the overwintering seedlings? Could they be damaged or killed by an extreme cold event, and if so, how cold would it have to be?
Hi Laura, thank you for your question! Unfortunately I don’t know the answer. This research was more heavily focused on the response to mismatching cues rather than the cues that already exist. It would be interesting to the test the extremes of these cues though.
This is amazing Sydney, congratulations!! 🙂
This is a very interesting topic. Keep up the great work, Syd! 🙂
Super interesting topic! The poster is awesome and easy to follow. Keep up the good work!
As you stated, this topic may sadly become very important in the future. Great work Syd!
Sydney, this is awesome!! It’s crazy to think how much global warming has an effect on germinating seeds throughout the year. Really interesting topic, and it’s really nicely put together. Congrats on your research!
Great job and really interesting research! I see you used the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, but I wonder how you think the seasonal cues would have different effects on different plant species? Would it depend on their genetic mechanisms?
Hi Emily, thank you for your question. We used Arabidopsis thaliana because it is a model plant species when it comes to performing research for a number of reasons. It only has five chromosomes, it is diploid, it is self fertile, it can produce 100s of progeny, and lastly because it has a short life cycle.
I cannot say for certain what the differences would be, but I’m sure that depending on the genetic makeup of a species, the effects of these environmental cues would vary.