Transcriptomic temperature stress responses in Australian plants: supplementary data and RNA-seq files

To improve our understanding of transcriptomic stress responses in plants to hot and cold temperature shocks a selection of 20 native Australian species were sequenced. The 20 study species were selected from three ecosystems that represent the three contrasting biomes of arid, alpine, and coastal temperate environments in Australia (Harris et al., 2024). The arid biome represents an extreme environment that is known for its high maximum temperatures, but many regions also experience freezing nights during winter. The alpine biome represents extreme cold in the cooler months, but the exposed slopes of mountains can also experience high temperatures during summer. Coastal temperate environments represent a more stable climate, with lower temperature fluctuations within a day or across a year. The 20 study species spanned 13 families and 16 genera (see “DAP_LOTE_metadata.xlsx” for metadata tables).
Seeds for the study species were obtained from conservation seed banks, including the Australian National Botanic Gardens Seed Bank and the Australian Botanic Gardens Plant Bank. A single accession of seed was used for each species (Harris et al., 2024).
Plants were grown in a temperature controlled glass house (25°C day 15°C night) before being moved to the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility at CSIRO Black Mountain laboratories, where they were kept in Conviron growth chambers for an acclimatisation period of 1-2 days prior to temperature treatments. Temperature treatments were run for three days with the heat treatment being 40°C days to 15°C nights and the cold treatment being 25°C days to -2°C nights, relative to a control group that experienced no change in temperature from benign growing conditions (25°C day 15°C night). On the morning after the third day, leaf samples were taken between 9:00am and 10:30am for RNA extraction (see below) and photosynthetic thermal tolerance measurements.

This collection contains Supplementarty information and RNA-seq libraries used for all data analyses presented in "LOTE_results_240703.html" and our paper. The Rmarkdown file "LOTE_Rcode_240703.Rmd" and the .rds file "LOTE_full_221026.rds" included here can be used to replicate the results. the .rds file includes binaries for the main data frames used for analyses. For more details on data files see “DAP_LOTE metadata.xlsx”.

Harris, R. J., Alvarez, P. R., Bryant, C., Briceño, V. F., Cook, A. M., Leigh, A., & Nicotra, A. B. (2024). Acclimation of thermal tolerance in juvenile plants from three biomes is suppressed when extremes co-occur. Conservation Physiology, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coae027