A team of scientists at the University of Calgary is making strides in understanding how plants adapt to environmental stressors, offering promising insights that could help make agricultural crops more resilient to heat, drought, and climate change. Dr. Sam Yeaman, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and his team have published groundbreaking research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), shedding light on how distantly related plant species—from sunflowers to poplars—adapt to similar stresses.

The study, led by Dr. Gabriele Nocchi, marks a significant step in understanding whether different plant species, despite their genetic differences, use similar genetic tools to respond to environmental challenges. The answer, according to Yeaman, is nuanced. “Yes, and no,” he explains. “While there is overlap in the genes used, plants also exhibit unique adaptive strategies. You could say that while each species has its own adaptation story, many share common genetic themes.”

The research reveals that there are certain key genes that play a particularly important role in how plants adapt to environmental stressors, such as heat or drought. This discovery builds on Yeaman’s earlier work, published in August in Nature Ecology & Evolution, which looked at the genetic architecture of adaptation in 25 plant species from diverse climates. In that study, Yeaman’s team found that similar genes were often involved in helping plants adjust to climate factors, even across species that were not closely related.

While both the PNAS and Nature studies focus on how plants adapt to their environments, they differ in their approach. The Nature paper analyzed how plants adapt to spatial environmental changes—such as transitioning from the cold Yukon boreal forests to the temperate rainforests of British Columbia—while the PNAS study delves into how plant species adjust to environmental changes over time, such as adapting to the gradual shifts caused by climate change.

“Taken together, these studies give us a much clearer picture of how plants respond to stress,” Yeaman explains. “The research is still largely theoretical, but it has significant potential in agricultural and biotech industries.”

One of the most exciting aspects of this research is its potential to improve food security. By understanding the genetic mechanisms that allow plants to adapt to changing environments, scientists can identify key genes that could be used to develop crops more resistant to the effects of climate change. This is especially critical as extreme weather events like heatwaves and droughts become more common due to global climate shifts.

The study also helps test important predictions of evolutionary theory, which Yeaman compares to a home renovation process. “Imagine you’re adjusting your home’s thermostat to manage temperature,” Yeaman says. “You could make a big change by simply turning the furnace on or off, or you could make smaller, long-term improvements like insulating your home, upgrading windows, or fixing air leaks.” He explains that evolution favors similar strategies for adaptation.

“When a species adapts to a new stress over time—like climate change—it generally involves many small mutations. But when populations inhabit very different environments, like hot or cold climates, evolution tends to favor a small number of large mutations that act as ‘thermostats’ controlling temperature differences between those populations.”

This theory was borne out in the team’s findings: in their Nature paper, they discovered that genes driving adaptation across geographic space tend to have larger effects, while the genes involved in long-term adaptation (such as those responding to climate change) tend to have smaller effects. In both studies, the same sets of genes appeared repeatedly across widely divergent species.

Yeaman and his team’s research not only deepens our understanding of how plants evolve, but it also offers concrete ways to harness this knowledge for practical applications. By identifying the genes that enable plants to thrive under stress, there is hope that scientists will be able to develop crops that are better suited to endure the increasingly unpredictable conditions brought on by climate change.

For now, the research remains largely theoretical, but its implications for crop improvement, food security, and climate resilience are profound. The agricultural and biotechnology industries are already paying close attention, as the potential for genetically enhanced crops could play a critical role in feeding a growing global population while navigating the challenges of a rapidly changing climate.

By Impact Lab