Data from: Variation in soil aluminum tolerance genes is associated with local adaptation to soils at the Park Grass Experiment

Studies of the wild grass Anthoxanthum odoratum at the long-term Park Grass Experiment (PGE, Harpenden, UK) document a well-known example of rapid plant evolution in response to environmental change. Repeated fertilizer applications have acidified the soil in some experimental plots over the past 150+ years, and Anthoxanthum subpopulations have quickly become locally adapted. Early reciprocal transplants showed subpopulation differentiation specifically in response to soil aluminium (Al) toxicity across the experiment, even at small (30 m) spatial scales. Almost 40 years after its original measurement, we reassessed the degree of local adaptation to soil Al at the PGE using updated phenotyping methods and identified genes with variation linked to the tolerance trait. Root growth assays show that plants are locally adapted to soil Al at both the seedling and adult growth stages, but to a smaller extent than previously inferred. Among a large suite of candidate loci that were previously shown to have Al-sensitive expression differences between sensitive and tolerant plants, three loci contained SNPs that are associated with both Al tolerance and soil acidity: an Al-sensitive malate transporter (ALMT), a tonoplast intrinsic protein (TIP) and the putative homolog of the rice cell-wall modification gene STAR1. Natural genetic variation at these loci is likely to have contributed to the recent rapid evolution at PGE. Continued study of Al tolerance variants in Anthoxanthum will allow us to test hypotheses about the nature and source of genetic variation that enables some species to adapt to soil acidification and other types of rapid environmental change.对英国哈彭登长期公园草地实验（Park Grass Experiment, PGE）中的野生草本植物黄花茅（*Anthoxanthum odoratum*）开展的研究，记录了一个广为人知的植物响应环境变化快速演化的经典案例。在过去150余年中，重复施用肥料导致部分实验样地的土壤发生酸化，黄花茅的亚种群也快速实现了本地适应。早期相互移植实验表明，即便在仅30米的小空间尺度下，该物种的亚种群分化也特异性响应了实验样地间的土壤铝（Al）毒性。在最初测量近40年后，我们借助更新的表型分析方法，重新评估了PGE样地中黄花茅对土壤铝毒性的本地适应程度，并鉴定出与耐铝性状相关的变异基因。根系生长测定实验显示，无论是幼苗期还是成株生长期，植物均对土壤铝毒性表现出本地适应，但适应程度较此前的推断更低。在先前被证实于敏感与耐铝植株间存在铝敏感表达差异的大量候选基因座中，有三个基因座携带的单核苷酸多态性（Single Nucleotide Polymorphism, SNPs）同时与铝耐受性及土壤酸度相关：分别是铝敏感型苹果酸转运蛋白（ALMT）、液泡膜内在蛋白（TIP），以及水稻细胞壁修饰基因*STAR1*的推定同源基因。这些基因座的自然遗传变异，很可能促成了PGE样地中近期发生的快速演化。对黄花茅中铝耐受性变异的持续研究，将帮助我们验证相关假说，即探究驱动部分物种适应土壤酸化及其他类型快速环境变化的遗传变异的本质与来源。