Differences in the Growth of Offspring From Sunflowers of Different Water Treatments
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
SURC Ballroom C/D
Start Date
16-5-2013
End Date
16-5-2013
Abstract
Plants may respond to environmental stress through epigenetic modification, which is altering gene expression without a change in DNA sequence. Epigenetic effects may be adaptive if they are heritable and preadapt future generations to the environment. This research tested for adaptive epigenetic effects of drought by growing four inbred lines of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) under high water and low water (drought) treatments for two generations. Survivorship and several morphological traits were measured weekly in seedlings of the offspring generation. Preliminary results suggest that the parental water treatment strongly affects plant height. Offspring from the high water environment were taller on average than offspring from the drought treatment, indicating that the parental water treatment can alter offspring phenotype. Interestingly, if offspring and parents experienced the same low water treatment, the plants were taller than if they had experienced low water in the parental generation and high water in the offspring generation. These results suggest that sunflower may be able to preadapt offspring in response to drought conditions through epigenetic modification. The agricultural implications of this study are that sunflower farmers need to know the environment that the parental plants were grown in to get the best crop yield for their seeds.
Recommended Citation
Croshaw, Casey and Sunwar, Terisa, "Differences in the Growth of Offspring From Sunflowers of Different Water Treatments" (2013). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 34.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2013/posters/34
Poster Number
23
Additional Mentoring Department
Biological Sciences
Differences in the Growth of Offspring From Sunflowers of Different Water Treatments
SURC Ballroom C/D
Plants may respond to environmental stress through epigenetic modification, which is altering gene expression without a change in DNA sequence. Epigenetic effects may be adaptive if they are heritable and preadapt future generations to the environment. This research tested for adaptive epigenetic effects of drought by growing four inbred lines of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) under high water and low water (drought) treatments for two generations. Survivorship and several morphological traits were measured weekly in seedlings of the offspring generation. Preliminary results suggest that the parental water treatment strongly affects plant height. Offspring from the high water environment were taller on average than offspring from the drought treatment, indicating that the parental water treatment can alter offspring phenotype. Interestingly, if offspring and parents experienced the same low water treatment, the plants were taller than if they had experienced low water in the parental generation and high water in the offspring generation. These results suggest that sunflower may be able to preadapt offspring in response to drought conditions through epigenetic modification. The agricultural implications of this study are that sunflower farmers need to know the environment that the parental plants were grown in to get the best crop yield for their seeds.
Faculty Mentor(s)
Jennifer Dechaine