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Climate change threatens plant species, potentially pushing them beyond their adaptive capacities. DNA methylation and other epigenetic modifications may enable rapid adaptation to environmental changes by generating locally adapted phenotypes. These phenotypic changes can be inherited across generations and may become targets of natural selection. However, direct evidence for selection on epialleles remains scarce. Addressing this gap is crucial, as population survival may heavily rely on DNA methylation, especially in clonal plants with limited genetic diversity. We employed population genomics approaches to investigate altitude-driven selection on epigenetic sites in clonal offspring of natural woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) populations. These offspring were grown in a common garden and derived from seven populations spanning an altitudinal range. Our genomic, epigenomic, and transcriptomic analyses identified epialleles in clones exhibiting signs of selection related to altitude. These loci overlapped with genes involved in the O-methyltransferase activity, potentially aiding altitude adaptation through enhanced secondary metabolite production. Interestingly, these epialleles were mostly independent of genetic variation, suggesting they may have arisen stochastically or in response to environmental variation. These findings suggest that heritable epigenetic variation could help clonal species quickly adapt to environmental challenges as those related to varying altitudes and/or temperatures.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
* We completed the analysed using published model and we focused only on individuals from common garden
* https://github.com/leveveaudrey/methylation_population_analysis