主要研究：We investigated early vegetative growth of natural Arabidopsis thaliana accessions in cold, nonfreezing temperatures, similar to temperatures these plants naturally encounter in fall at northern latitudes. 

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结果1-正常生长：We found that accessions from northern latitudes produced larger seedlings than accessions from southern latitudes, partly as a result of larger seed size. 

结果2-低温胁迫：However, their subsequent vegetative growth when exposed to colder temperatures was slower. 

结果3-组学变化：The difference was too large to be explained by random population differentiation, and is thus suggestive of local adaptation, a notion that is further supported by substantial transcriptome and metabolome changes in northern accessions. 

结论：We hypothesize that the reduced growth of northern accessions is an adaptive response and a consequence of reallocating resources toward cold acclimation and winter survival.

Geographic origin of the 249 accessions.

本文作者研究了拟南芥自然种质在寒冷但并非冰冻温度下，即类似于这些种质在北纬度地区的秋季正常会遇到的温度条件下的早期营养生长情况。作者发现，来自北纬度的材料要比来自南纬度的材料的幼苗更大，部分原因是北纬度材料的种子普遍更大。然而，利用低温处理这些材料时，作者发现北纬度材料其在遭遇寒冷胁迫后营养生长较为缓慢。这种差异太大，无法用随机种群分化来解释，因此暗示了存在地域适应性，而北方种质大规模的转录和代谢变化也进一步支持了该假设。因此，作者认为北方种质在遭遇低温时减少营养生长是一种适应性响应，即通过资源重新分配以适应寒冷气候，从而确保在冬季的生存。

** Magnus Nordborg **