Transgenerational salinity tolerance plasticity in rice: Unraveling nongenetic phenotypic modifications and environmental influences

Abstract

Transgenerational plasticity in plants enables rapid adaptation to environmental changes, allowing organisms and their offspring to adapt to the environment without altering their underlying DNA. In this study, we investigated the plasticity of transgenerational salinity tolerance of rice plants using a reciprocal transplant experimental strategy. Our aim was to assess whether nongenetic environment-induced phenotypic modifications and transgenerational salinity affect the salinity tolerance of progeny while excluding nuclear genomic factors for two generations. Using salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive rice genotypes, we observed that the parentally salt-stressed salt-sensitive genotype displayed greater growth performance, photosynthetic activity, yield performance, and transcriptional responses than did the parentally nonstressed salt-sensitive plants under salt stress conditions. Surprisingly, salt stress-exposed salt-tolerant progeny did not exhibit as much salinity tolerance as salt stress-exposed salt-sensitive progeny under salt stress. Our findings indicate that the phenotypes of offspring plants differed based on the environment experienced by their ancestors, resulting in heritable transgenerational phenotypic modifications in salt-sensitive genotypes via maternal effects. These results elucidated the mechanisms underlying transgenerational plasticity in salinity tolerance, providing valuable insights into how plants respond to changing environmental conditions.

Keywords: Salt stress; maternal effect; offspring; parental effect; stress memory; transcriptional memory.