New study from our team: we tested two common Central European grasses (Festuca rubra vs Lolium perenne) across a strong drought gradient under today’s climate vs “future” conditions (warming + elevated CO₂), tracking plant traits + leaf/root/rhizosphere microbiomes via amplicon sequencing.

Charles University, Faculty of Science@sciencecharles.bsky.social · 6mo ago

How will drought reshape #grassland life under climate change? 🌾🌍 New work shows #drought strongly shifts plant #microbiomes, especially #bacteria. Elevated CO₂ can partly buffer losses, revealing species-specific strategies that shape resilience from roots to leaves. 🔗 buff.ly/1TxurUJ (MK)

How will drought reshape #grassland life under climate change? 🌾🌍 New work shows #drought strongly shifts plant #microbiomes, especially #bacteria. Elevated CO₂ can partly buffer losses, revealing species-specific strategies that shape resilience from roots to leaves. 🔗 buff.ly/1TxurUJ (MK)

🧬 New from our Department #PlantScience #Epigenetics #TransgenerationalEffects #FragariaVesca #PlantMemory

Vitek Latzel@vtec.bsky.social · 10mo ago

In strawberry, transgenerational effects (TGE) depend on how plants reproduce: Clonal offspring: stronger TGE from abiotic stresses Sexual offspring: stronger TGE from biotic interactions Even DNA methylation inheritance follows this split. Reproduction mode shapes what kind of memory plants pass on

Our department is proud to be part of the organizing team for this amazing conference on population biology and beyond! 🌿 Don't miss this great opportunity to visit Prague in the spring! 🌸 #PopBio2025 #ScienceConference #Ecology"

Vitek Latzel@vtec.bsky.social · last yr.

Great news! 🌿 #PopBio2025 is coming to Prague! Don't miss this fantastic conference on population biology—save the date! 21-24 May 📅 #Ecology #Evolution #ScienceConference"

Env. change can push plants beyond their genetic limits, but heritable epigenetic changes may offer a fast track to adaptation. Our study on clonal woodland strawberry shows altitude-driven selection on epialleles, suggesting DNA methylation could help plants thrive under changing environment.

DNA methylation shows footprints of altitude selection in the clonal plant species Fragaria vesca

### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

biorxiv.org

Check out our new paper in Journal of Ecology! We’ve been delving into transgenerational plasticity (TGP)—that cool mechanism where plants “prep” their offspring for future environments. Our big question? Whether clonal and sexual offspring from the same parent plants show similar TGP.

Transgenerational effects of mycorrhiza are stronger in sexual than in clonal offspring of Fragaria vesca and are partly adaptive

These results suggest that clonal and sexual reproduction are under different evolutionary pressures, leading to the development of stronger TGE mechanisms in response to mycorrhizal symbiosis in the...

doi.org