Examining
genomic and plant level responses to rising CO2 allows for
incorporation of the nature of the responses and the mechanisms controlling
these responses when scaling their impact to the community and ecosystem
levels. Also necessary for accurately scaling the effects of elevated CO2
on plants to higher levels of organization over long time periods is a
comprehensive understanding of changes in plant evolution with elevated CO2.
Therefore, the responses of traits that impact plant fitness are important for
projecting the long-term effects of elevated CO2. One such trait is the transition
from vegetative to reproductive growth, because the timing of this transition
can impact the fitness and yield of plants in natural and agro-ecosystems.
Furthermore, the onset of reproduction commonly marks the beginning of
senescence, thus changes in reproductive timing may influence productivity at
higher levels of organization through altered size at reproduction. Increasing
CO2 both accelerates and delays the timing of reproduction in many
plant species. Previously we selected several genotypes of Arabidopsis for high fitness over five generations at elevated CO2
to examine the physiological mechanisms that confer increased fitness at
elevated CO2. When grown at current and elevated CO2,
growth at elevated CO2 significantly delayed the reproductive timing
of the genotype that exhibited the largest increase in fitness with selection.
However, a genotype that served as a control for the selection process did not
exhibit changes in reproductive timing. Using gene expression studies we have
made significant progress in determining the mechanisms through which elevated CO2
delays flowering in the selected genotype. To date, we have confirmed our
visible observations of delayed flowering with elevated CO2 at the
molecular level. In addition, we have compelling evidence to suggest that
elevated CO2 acts through the autonomous floral signaling pathway of
Arabidopsis to delay
reproduction.