Tissue culture as a source of replicates in non-model plants: variation in cold response in Arabidopsis lyrata ssp. petraea

Whilst genotype-environment interaction is increasingly receiving attention by ecologists and evolutionary biologists, such studies need genetically homogeneous replicates-a challenging hurdle in outcrossing plants. This could potentially be overcome by using tissue culture techniques. However, plants regenerated from tissue culture may show aberrant phenotypes and \"somaclonal\" variation. Here we examined the somaclonal variation due to tissue culturing using the response to cold treatment of the photosynthetic efficiency (chlorophyll fluorescence measurements for Fv/Fm, Fv'/Fm' and ΦPSII, representing maximum efficiency of photosynthesis for dark- and light-adapted leaves, and the actual electron transport operating efficiency, respectively, which are reliable indicators of photoinhibition and damage to the photosynthetic electron transport system). We compared this to variation among half-sibling seedlings from three different families of Arabidopsis lyrata ssp. petraea. Somaclonal va...