Mangrove Trees as Models for Climate-Driven Adaptation: A Genomic, Epigenomic, and Transcriptomic Approach
My research explores how epigenetic mechanisms contribute to plant adaptation in response to climate-induced environmental stress, using mangrove trees as a model for resilience in extreme ecosystems. Mangroves thrive under fluctuating conditions—high salinity, hypoxia, and tidal forces—making them ideal candidates for investigating plant plasticity and adaptation under rapid climate change. Despite their ecological importance, mangroves remain largely underexplored at the genomic and epigenomic levels.
I produced the first de novo genome assembly and in natura epigenomic map for a mangrove species, revealing salinity-associated DNA methylation patterns. These included hypermethylation of transposable elements and key regulatory genes. This work highlights the importance of epigenetic regulation in mangrove stress tolerance and phenotypic plasticity.
Supported by a JST-FOREST PI award, my independent laboratory is now leveraging the unique vivipary trait of mangroves—where seedlings germinate while still attached to the parent tree—to study transgenerational stress memory in a natural setting. By transplanting these viviparous offspring across different salinity gradients, we are testing how parental environments shape epigenetic states and resilience in the next generation.
In addition, Okinawa represents the northernmost limit of global mangrove distribution, where these plants experience four distinct seasons—unlike their tropical counterparts. This provides a unique opportunity to study seasonal methylome and transcriptome dynamics in the field, allowing us to explore seasonality as an important dimension of plant adaptation to climate change.
By combining field ecology, epigenomics, and next-generation sequencing, my research offers novel insights into plant resilience and builds a mechanistic framework to better understand how plants respond to climate change at the molecular level.
