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Ranpal S, von Bargen S, Gilles S, Luschkova D, Landgraf M, Bogawski P, Traidl-Hoffmann C, Büttner C, Damialis A, Fritsch M, Jochner-Oette S. Continental-scale evaluation of downy birch pollen production: Estimating the impacts of global change. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2024; 252:119114. [PMID: 38729412 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.119114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2024] [Revised: 05/08/2024] [Accepted: 05/08/2024] [Indexed: 05/12/2024]
Abstract
The high prevalence of hay fever in Europe has raised concerns about the implications of climate change-induced higher temperatures on pollen production. Our study focuses on downy birch pollen production across Europe by analyzing 456 catkins during 2019-2021 in 37 International Phenological Gardens (IPG) spanning a large geographic gradient. As IPGs rely on genetically identical plants, we were able to reduce the effects of genetic variability. We studied the potential association with masting behavior and three model specifications based on mean and quantile regression to assess the impact of meteorology (e.g., temperature and precipitation) and atmospheric gases (e.g., ozone (O3) and carbon-dioxide (CO2)) on pollen and catkin production, while controlling for tree age approximated by stem circumference. The results revealed a substantial geographic variability in mean pollen production, ranging from 1.9 to 2.5 million pollen grains per catkin. Regression analyses indicated that elevated average temperatures of the previous summer corresponded to increased pollen production, while higher O3 levels led to a reduction. Additionally, catkins number was positively influenced by preceding summer's temperature and precipitation but negatively by O3 levels. The investigation of quantile effects revealed that the impacts of mean temperature and O3 levels from the previous summer varied throughout the conditional response distribution. We found that temperature predominantly affected trees characterized by a high pollen production. We therefore suggest that birches modulate their physiological processes to optimize pollen production under varying temperature regimes. In turn, O3 levels negatively affected trees with pollen production levels exceeding the conditional median. We conclude that future temperature increase might exacerbate pollen production while other factors may modify (decrease in the case of O3 and amplify for precipitation) this effect. Our comprehensive study sheds light on potential impacts of climate change on downy birch pollen production, which is crucial for birch reproduction and human health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Surendra Ranpal
- Physical Geography/Landscape Ecology and Sustainable Ecosystem Development, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Germany.
| | - Susanne von Bargen
- Humboldt-University of Berlin, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute for Crop and Animal Sciences, Division Phytomedicine, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Stefanie Gilles
- Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany.
| | - Daria Luschkova
- Department of Dermatology and Allergology, University Hospital Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany.
| | - Maria Landgraf
- Humboldt-University of Berlin, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute for Crop and Animal Sciences, Division Phytomedicine, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Pawel Bogawski
- Department of Systematic and Environmental Botany, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.
| | - Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann
- Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany; CK CARE, Christine Kühne Center for Allergy Research and Education, Davos, Switzerland; Institute of Environmental Medicine, Helmholtz Munich, Augsburg, Germany.
| | - Carmen Büttner
- Humboldt-University of Berlin, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute for Crop and Animal Sciences, Division Phytomedicine, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Athanasios Damialis
- Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany; Terrestrial Ecology and Climate Change, Department of Ecology, School of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
| | - Markus Fritsch
- Chair of Statistics and Data Analytics, School of Business, Economics and Information Systems, University of Passau, Passau, Germany.
| | - Susanne Jochner-Oette
- Physical Geography/Landscape Ecology and Sustainable Ecosystem Development, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Germany.
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Zhang J, Shi J, Zeng K, Cai M, Lan X. Transcriptomic landscape of staminate catkins development during overwintering process in Betula platyphylla. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2024; 14:1249122. [PMID: 38259941 PMCID: PMC10801112 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1249122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2023] [Accepted: 09/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024]
Abstract
Betula platyphylla, belonging to the cold-specialized lineage Betulaceae, exhibits a unique reproductive strategy where staminate catkins emerge in the first summer and undergo an overwintering process, culminating in flowering in the following year. However, the underlying regulatory mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the male germline development of B. platyphylla in four distinct stages: microsporocytes in Oct. (S1), uninuclear microspores from Dec. (S2) to Mar. of the following year (S3), and bicellular microspores in Apr. (S4). We performed RNA sequencing on mature pollen and the four stages of staminate catkins. Using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we identified five highly correlated gene modules with distinct expression profiles. These modules exhibited strong correlations with sugar metabolism, cell cycle, flowering, and cell wall dynamics, highlighting their dynamic roles during male germline developmental stages. During the overwintering process, we observed that the expression of transcription factors such as BpDUO1 and BpAMS at the appropriate developmental stages, suggests their significant roles in male germline development. The expression patterns of BpFLC and BpFT suggest their potential involvement in temperature perception during male reproductive development. These findings offer valuable insights into the reproductive success of plants adapting to cold environments.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Xingguo Lan
- Key Laboratory of Saline-Alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
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Jetschni J, Fritsch M, Jochner-Oette S. How does pollen production of allergenic species differ between urban and rural environments? INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOMETEOROLOGY 2023; 67:1839-1852. [PMID: 37658998 PMCID: PMC10589151 DOI: 10.1007/s00484-023-02545-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2023] [Revised: 05/25/2023] [Accepted: 08/19/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Pollen production is one plant characteristic that is considered to be altered by changes in environmental conditions. In this study, we investigated pollen production of the three anemophilous species Betula pendula, Plantago lanceolata, and Dactylis glomerata along an urbanization gradient in Ingolstadt, Germany. We compared pollen production with the potential influencing factors urbanization, air temperature, and the air pollutants nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3). While we measured air temperature in the field, we computed concentration levels of NO2 and O3 from a land use regression model. The results showed that average pollen production (in million pollen grains) was 1.2 ± 1.0 per catkin of Betula pendula, 5.0 ± 2.4 per inflorescence of Plantago lanceolata, and 0.7 ± 0.5 per spikelet of Dactylis glomerata. Pollen production was higher in rural compared to urban locations on average for B. pendula (+ 73%) and P. lanceolata (+ 31%), while the opposite was the case for D. glomerata (- 14%). We found that there was substantial heterogeneity across the three species with respect to the association of pollen production and environmental influences. Pollen production decreased for all species with increasing temperature and urbanization, while for increasing pollutant concentrations, decreases were observed for B. pendula, P. lanceolata, and increases for D. glomerata. Additionally, pollen production was found to be highly variable across species and within species-even at small spatial distances. Experiments should be conducted to further explore plant responses to altering environmental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna Jetschni
- Physical Geography / Landscape Ecology and Sustainable Ecosystem Development, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Germany
| | - Markus Fritsch
- Chair of Statistics and Data Analytics, School of Business, Economics and Information Systems, University of Passau, Passau, Germany
| | - Susanne Jochner-Oette
- Physical Geography / Landscape Ecology and Sustainable Ecosystem Development, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Germany
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