Group Leader: Francisco Javier Gallego Rodríguez.

Researchers: Isabel García García, Jose Luis Hórreo Escandón, Belén Méndez Cea.

 

 

Coniferous forests located at the distribution limit of species represent an exceptional model for monitoring the symptoms related to climate change. In recent years, many studies have shown that climate change is not only responsible for the extinction of many species but also for the reduction of genetic variability in many others. In this context, we are interested in analyzing the phenomenon of decline in forest populations and its possible relationship with climate change from a genetic perspective. The ultimate goal is to provide data to understand and evaluate the effect of climate change on the survival of species and ecosystems..

The response of forest species is a complex phenomenon that requires a multidisciplinary approach in which genomic tools have much to contribute.
SNP marker development techniques based on genome-wide sequencing (Genotyping By Sequencing, GBS) allow us to characterize variability in natural populations threatened by warming and identify signatures of selection associated with decline in coniferous forests. Likewise, we can detect, for example, genes associated with the resilient response of certain individuals.
Through drought treatments under controlled conditions, we can identify variation in gene expression patterns (transcriptomes) using massive RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) procedures. Among other results, we can characterize the differences in global gene expression between individuals that are resilient and non-resilient to environmental stress.
Trees, due to their long generation time, require phenotypic plasticity to respond to environmental variations. Therefore, we are also interested in studying the possible relationship between epigenetic modifications of their genomes and that observed phenotypic plasticity.
The ultimate goal of this research is to develop tools to assess the vulnerability of forests.

Publications:

• Climate and Soil Microsite Conditions Determine Local Adaptation in Declining Silver Fir Forests. Plants, Vol. 12, Núm. 14. 2023.

• Contrasting transcriptomic patterns reveal a genomic basis for drought resilience in the relict fir Abies pinsapo Boiss. Tree physiology, Vol. 43, Núm. 2, pp. 315-334. 

  2023.

• De novo transcriptome sequencing and gene co-expression reveal a genomic basis for drought sensitivity and evidence of a rapid local adaptation on Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica). Frontiers in Plant Science, Vol. 14

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  2023.

• Tree-Level Growth Patterns and Genetic Associations Depict Drought Legacies in the Relict Forests of Abies marocana. Plants, Vol. 12, Núm. 4

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  2023.

• Warming appears as the main risk of non-adaptedness for western Mediterranean relict fir forests under expected climate change scenarios. Frontiers in Plant Science, Vol. 14

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  2023.

• Weak genetic differentiation but strong climate-induced selective pressure toward the rear edge of mountain pine in north-eastern Spain. Science of the Total Environment, Vol. 858

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  2023.

• Challenges and Perspectives in the Epigenetics of Climate Change-Induced Forests Decline. Frontiers in Plant Science, Vol. 12

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  2022.

• Gene frequency shift in relict abies pinsapo forests associated with drought-induced mortality: Preliminary evidence of local-scale divergent selection. 

  Forests, Vol. 12, Núm. 9

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  2021.

• Understanding genetic diversity of relict forests. Linking long-term isolation legacies and current habitat fragmentation in Abies pinsapo Boiss. Forest Ecology and Management, Vol. 461

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  2020.

• Abies pinsapo Boiss. Transcriptome Sequencing and Molecular Marker Detection: A Novel Genetic Resources for a Relict Mediterranean Fir. Forest Science, Vol. 64, Núm. 6, pp. 609-617

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  2019.

 

Research Projects:

•  IBerian FORest responses to climate change across spatio-temporal scales: hotspots and roles of structural and functional RESilience (IB-ForRes). 2022-25. Ministry of Science and Innovation. PID2021-123675OB-C44.

• Multifunctional evaluation of post-dieback recovery to forecast and mitigate the impact of drought on forests (TRANSILVA). 2022-24. Ministry of Science and Innovation. TED2021-129770B-C22.

• Conservation of degraded pinsapares in the Intercontinental Mediterranean Biosphere Reserve: an eco-genomic approach to assess the adaptive potential to global change of threatened forest species. 2020-23. Regional Government of Andalusia. PAIDI, P18-RT-1170.

• Legacy effects of environmental conditions and management on tree drought sensitivity: a dendrogenomic approach into adaptation to climate change. Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. 2019-22. RTI2018-096884-B-C33.

• Functional diversity of soils in changing forest ecosystems. Government of Aragon. 2019-20. LMP242_18.

• Selective pressures of climate change on the ecophysiology and genetic structure of trees and soil microbial communities in forest ecotones. 

  Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. 

  2014-18. CGL2013-48843-C2-2-R.

 

External Collaborators:

As we have mentioned before, this research would be impossible to carry out without a multidisciplinary framework in which collaboration with other research groups is essential. The following are the main collaborations in this context.

 

- Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla:

• Juan Carlos Linares Calderón. 

• Jose Ignacio Seco Gordillo. 

• Raúl Sánchez Salguero. 

 - Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC), Zaragoza:

• Jesús Julio Camarero Martínez. 

• Antonio Gazol Burgos. 

- Universidad de Alcalá:

• Miguel Ángel de Zavala Gironés. 

• Paloma Ruiz Benito. 

• Mariano García Alonso. 

• Inmaculada Aguado Suárez. 

- University of California-Davis (USA):

• Julin N. Maloof. 

- University of Conneticut (USA):

• Jill Wegrzyn.