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SUMMARY:How Long Do Plants Remember? Transgenerational Stress Memory in a 
 Duckweed-Aphid System
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20261002T080500Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20261002T082500Z
DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260916T043320Z
UID:indico-contribution-2942@cern.ch
DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Enrico Diniz Rodrigues Batista (Institute of Organis
 mic and Molecular Evolution\, University of Mainz)\nTransgenerational plas
 ticity is considered a flexible and rapid adaptive mechanism that enables 
 organisms to respond to environmental change over relatively short evoluti
 onary timescales. However\, how long these effects persist and the extent 
 to which they influence organismal fitness remain largely unknown. Here\, 
 we investigated these questions using the giant duckweed (Spirodela polyrh
 iza) and its native herbivore\, the waterlily aphid (Rhopalosiphum nymphae
 ae). We exposed clonal duckweed lineages to aphid herbivory for ten consec
 utive generations and subsequently allowed them to recover under herbivore
 -free conditions for 1\, 3\, 5\, 7\, or 9 generations. We then grew the de
 scendants in the presence and absence of aphids to assess their transgener
 ational responses. Duckweed exhibited a remarkably persistent stress memor
 y: the ancestral herbivory environment fundamentally altered the growth of
  descendant fronds across multiple subsequent generations. Ancestral aphid
  feeding enhanced plant growth in the absence\, but not the presence\, of 
 renewed herbivory. This pattern suggests that previously stressed plants o
 vercompensate by accelerating growth once herbivore pressure is removed\, 
 rather than by increasing resistance to recurring attack. Remarkably\, anc
 estral aphid herbivory also enhanced aphid fitness\, even after nine gener
 ations without herbivore exposure. Together\, these findings demonstrate t
 hat duckweed possesses a long-lasting\, multigenerational stress memory th
 at herbivores may exploit to their own advantage.\n\nhttps://indico.unina.
 it/event/117/contributions/2942/
LOCATION: Sala Monumentini
URL:https://indico.unina.it/event/117/contributions/2942/
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