Molecular Ecology, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Institute for Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany; LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Friederike Reuss
Molecular Ecology, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Angelika Kiebler
Molecular Ecology, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Philipp Schönnenbeck
Molecular Ecology, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Institute of Human Genetics, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
Cosima Caliendo
Molecular Ecology, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Institute of Human Genetics, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
Susanne Gerber
Institute of Human Genetics, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
Berardino Cocchiararo
LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Conservation Genetics Section, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Gelnhausen, Germany
Sabrina Reuter
Ecological Networks lab, Department of Biology, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Nico Blüthgen
Ecological Networks lab, Department of Biology, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Karsten Mody
Ecological Networks lab, Department of Biology, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany; Department of Applied Ecology, Hochschule Geisenheim University, Geisenheim, Germany
Bagdevi Mishra
Biological Archives, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Miklós Bálint
LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Functional Environmental Genomics, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Agricultural Sciences, Nutritional Sciences, and Environmental Management, Universität Giessen, Giessen, Germany
Marco Thines
LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Biological Archives, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Institute for Ecology, Evolution and Diversity, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Barbara Feldmeyer
Molecular Ecology, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
In the course of global climate change, Central Europe is experiencing more frequent and prolonged periods of drought. The drought years 2018 and 2019 affected European beeches (Fagus sylvatica L.) differently: even in the same stand, drought-damaged trees neighboured healthy trees, suggesting that the genotype rather than the environment was responsible for this conspicuous pattern. We used this natural experiment to study the genomic basis of drought resistance with Pool-GWAS. Contrasting the extreme phenotypes identified 106 significantly associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) throughout the genome. Most annotated genes with associated SNPs (>70%) were previously implicated in the drought reaction of plants. Non-synonymous substitutions led either to a functional amino acid exchange or premature termination. A non-parametric machine learning approach on 98 validation samples yielded 20 informative loci which allowed an 88% prediction probability of the drought phenotype. Drought resistance in European beech is a moderately polygenic trait that should respond well to natural selection, selective management, and breeding.
