Genome and transcriptome analyses reveal parallel altitude adaptation in Chenopodium.
Zhang C, Li X, Huang J, Gong J, Li C
Climate Adaptation
Highland quinoa plants quietly deleted chunks of their own DNA over generations to survive the Andes—and researchers have now pinpointed those exact deletions, giving breeders precise targets to develop quinoa varieties that could handle the frost pockets and unpredictable springs increasingly common in temperate gardens.
Quinoa and its wild relatives evolved to survive high in the Andes mountains, and scientists wanted to know how. By comparing the DNA and gene activity across hundreds of plants, they found that both cultivated quinoa and a wild cousin independently stumbled onto the same genetic solutions—like tweaking when they flower and how they soak up nutrients. One of the most striking discoveries was that highland quinoa plants had large chunks of DNA deleted near a gene that controls how seedlings stretch toward light, suggesting the plants rewired their own growth to handle mountain conditions.
Key Findings
Both cultivated quinoa and its wild relative Chenopodium berlandieri independently evolved the same altitude-adaptation changes in genes controlling flowering time (CONSTANS) and nutrient transport (PTR2), demonstrating parallel evolution across species.
Genome-wide mapping identified 2,659 local (cis) and 407,628 distant (trans) regulatory variants controlling the activity of more than 11,000 genes across the Chenopodium genus.
Large DNA deletions upstream of the ELF3 gene are significantly enriched in highland quinoa populations and are linked to reduced ELF3 expression and elongated seedlings, showing that structural DNA changes—not just point mutations—drive altitude adaptation.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists sequenced the genomes and gene activity of 558 quinoa plants and 19 wild relatives to uncover how these plants independently evolved to survive high-altitude conditions, finding shared genetic changes in both cultivated quinoa and its wild cousin that control flowering timing, nutrient transport, and seedling growth.
Abstract Preview
Elucidating how crops adapt to heterogeneous environments requires integrative analyses of genome-wide variation, regulatory architecture, and evolutionary processes. Chenopodium quinoa, a globally...
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