3.2 Plasmotype effects on the plasticity circadian clock
and ChlF traits in reciprocal hybrids
We also included a photosynthetic rhythmicity analysis to the RH under
OT and HT using SensyPAM platform (See Methods). The average Fv/Fm was
significantly higher under HT (0.93 ±0.01) in comparison to OT (0.92
±0.01; Figure 1d ) and significantly different for the average
NPQlss per se (0.66 ±0.1 vs. 0.43 ±0.08) under OT in comparison
to HT (Figure 1e ). We calculated the amplitude and the period
of the NPQlss rhythmicity and found that the former was significantly
higher under HT (0.03 ±0.01) compared to OT (0.015 ±0.006) (Figure1f ). This is compared to the period, which was significantly
higher under OT (24.9 ±2.6 h) compared to HT (23.3 ±1.9 h; Figure1g ). This clock plasticity is similar to the one described for
the ASHER (Bdolach et al. , 2019) with acceleration of the
rhythmicity under HT. Moreover, these results suggest that under HT,
photosynthesis is more efficient than under OT.
In another way of comparing the contribution of the plasmotype variation
to the phenotypic variation and plasticity we counted the number of
reciprocal hybrids that significantly differ in the life history traits
and Chl F traits (Figure 2 ). Note that pairs of RH are sharing
similar nucleotype (heterozygous) and differ only in their plasmotype
identity therefore significant difference between the two types of
non-segregating hybrids point to effect of the plasmotype on the trait.
We clustered phenotypic traits measured in the net house as growth or
reproductive and traits measured with SensyPAM as the clock or Chl F
parameters. The percentage of different pairs of RH was highest for the
Fv/Fm under OT (44.8%), and the lowest was zero hybrids for the
difference of DTF under AT. If comparing the traits according to our
clustering, we could see that the mean number of differing reciprocal
hybrids is highest for Chl F (26.3%), second for clock traits (15%),
and falling behind for growth and reproductive traits with 5.23% and
3.73%, respectively (Figure 2 ).
Overall, these analyses implicate a significant contribution of the
plasmotype diversity to the phenotypic plasticity, and moreover and to
more extent, for the plasticity of the photosynthesis and its circadian
rhythmicity.