A transcontinental test of climate adaptation in a global plant invader
A large-scale common garden experiment with white clover (Trifolium repens) across Europe and North America reveals how rapid local adaptation to climate shapes the success of a globally widespread species. Researchers transplanted individuals from 96 native and introduced populations into four gardens spanning northern and southern latitudes on both continents. They found that populations rapidly adapt to spatial climate variation in their introduced range, just as they do in their native range, with selection strongest at lower latitudes. However, the study also uncovered an “adaptation lag” in the northern introduced site, where plants from historically warmer climates performed best, indicating that even rapidly adapting populations are struggling to keep pace with the speed of contemporary climate change.
Why it might matter to you:
This research provides a mechanistic framework for understanding how organisms respond to novel environmental pressures, a core concept in host-pathogen dynamics and transplantation biology. The demonstrated “adaptation lag” has direct parallels in vaccine development, where pathogen evolution can outpace immune recognition, and in regenerative medicine, where transplanted cells or tissues must adapt to a new host microenvironment. The experimental design—testing adaptation across continents and climates—offers a model for predicting the long-term viability of therapeutic cell populations or engineered tissues in fluctuating physiological conditions.
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