Sunflower Evolution and Adaption to Climate Change

Abstract

Temperatures in Minnesota will rise drastically in the next several decades, and it is important to understand how plants will react to this climate change. Some researchers have studied these reactions with resurrection studies, in which modern and antecedent plant lines are grown in a common environment to monitor evolution thus far and possible adaption to new environments. However, few studies have investigated the hybrid progeny of these resurrected lines. The hybrids serve as a study system for understanding evolution and maternal effects. We investigated these hybrid progeny from a resurrection study of Helianthus annuus and found surprising phenotypic plasticity, decreased transgenerational plasticity in warmer temperatures, and introgression from cultivated varieties.