Phylogeography of a widely distributed plant species reveals cryptic genetic lineages with parallel phenotypic responses to warming and drought conditions

To predict how widely distributed species will perform under future climate change it is crucial to understand and reveal their underlying phylogenetics. However, detailed information about plant adaptation and its genetic basis and history remains scarce and especially widely distributed species receive little attention despite their putatively high adaptability. To examine the adaptation potential of a widely distributed species, we sampled the model plant Silene vulgaris across Europe. In a greenhouse experiment, we exposed the offspring of these populations to a climate-change scenario for central Europe and revealed the population structure through whole genome sequencing. Plants were grown under two temperature (18°C, 21°C) and three precipitation regimes (65 mm, 75 mm, 90 mm) to measure their response in biomass and fecundity related traits. To reveal the population genetic structure, ddRAD sequencing was employed for a whole genome approach. We found three major genetic clusters...