TABLE 4.
Studies on epigenetic regulation in invasive plant species.
| Plant species (family) | Inference | References |
|---|---|---|
| Alternanthera philoxeroides (Amaranthaceae) | The weed can be both terrestrial as well as aquatic. The genetic variation was found to be low but MSAP analysis showed significant epigenetic variation within and between the populations. Common garden experiments showed a correlation between epigenetic reprogramming and the reversible phenotypic response | Gao et al. (2010) |
| Carpobrotus edulis (Aizoaceae) | The plant was sampled from native and invaded areas and grown in experimental plots with changing climatic conditions. Variation was studied through MSAP. No variation was observed in response to changes in climatic variables although higher levels of DNA methylation were observed in invasive taxa as compared to the native ones | Campoy et al. (2022) |
| Phragmites australis (Poaceae) | Invasive North American populations originated from native European and Mediterranean populations. Both genetic and epigenetic mechanisms contributed to invasion success in N. America, although no epigenetic convergence was seen between native and introduced groups before genetic convergence. | Liu et al. (2018) |
| Furthermore, a strong correlation was found between epigenetic and phenotypic traits than between genetic variation and the traits of twelve analyzed natural populations. Though, genetic differentiation correlated well with heterogenous habitats of the populations | Qiu et al. (2021) | |
| Mikania micrantha (Asteraceae) | The analyzed 21 populations in Southern China differentiated into sub-populations with both genetic and epigenetic structures. The populations maintained an almost equally high level of transposable element-based genetic and epigenetic variation. Furthermore, the epigenetic and genetic population structure correlated with environmental variables namely, precipitation, temperature, vegetation coverage, and soil metals. The temperature variable was found to play a more important role than soil in shaping the epigenetic differentiation amongst the populations studied | Su et al. (2021) |
| Shen et al. (2021) | ||
| Spartina alterniflora (Poaceae) and Borrichia frutescens (Asteraceae) | The two species were studied along a natural salt marsh environmental gradient. More epigenetic than genetic loci were correlated with habitat in both species. The relationships between genetic and epigenetic variation and habitat were observed to be species-specific | Foust et al. (2016) |
| Spartina anglica (Poaceae) | Methylation patterns (30%) between the parental and hybrids and the allopolyploid Spartina anglica were found to be different. The observations revealed the association between an increase in epigenetic marks and higher morphological plasticity in the invasive plant species catering to its higher ecological amplitude | Salmon et al. (2005) |
| Spartina alterniflora (Poaceae) | Significant genetic structure was observed between oil-contaminated and uncontaminated sites along with five MS-AFLP loci that correlated with oil-exposed sites. Bisulfite sequencing and epiGBS demonstrated that genetic and epigenetic variation and the expression pattern of genes correlated well with exposure to oil pollution. Both domains probably reinforced each other and contributed to the response to environmental pollution or stress | Robertson et al. (2017) |
| Alvarez et al. (2020) | ||
| Fallopia species complex: F. japonica, F. sachalinensis, and F.x bohemica (Polygonaceae) | The analysis included five marsh sites, six roadside sites and five beach sites across eastern New York studied for habitat differentiation. Epigenetic variability was associated more with habitat differentiation in invasive taxa with poor genetic differentiation | Richards et al. (2012) |
| Reynoutria species (Polygonaceae) | The epigenetic differences observed correlated with the genetic differentiation, with a possibility of the epigenotype being dependent on the genotype. The methylation loci probably accumulated as stable epimutations and the mutations and epimutations tended to reinforce each other | Robertson et al. (2020) |
| Taraxacum officianale (Asteraceae) | In the clonal apomictic populations of invasive dandelions, range expansion along colder ecological gradients was linked to heritable DNA methylation. Furthermore, flowering time difference, an adaptive trait in colder ecological gradients was shown to be mediated by inherited DNA methylation differences | Preite et al. (2015) Wilschut et al. (2016) |