• Telomere length has been implicated in the organismal response to stress, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown.
• Here we examine the impact of telomere length changes on the responses to three contrasting abiotic environments in Arabidopsis, and measure 32 fitness, developmental, physiological and leaf-level anatomical traits.
• We report that telomere length in wild-type and short-telomere mutants is resistant to abiotic stress, while the elongated telomeres in ku70 mutants are more plastic. We detected significant pleiotropic effects of telomere length on flowering time and key leaf physiological and anatomical traits. Furthermore, our data reveal a significant genotype by environment (G × E) interaction for reproductive fitness, with the benefits and costs to performance depending on the growth conditions.
• These results imply that life-history trade-offs between flowering time and reproductive fitness are impacted by telomere length variation. We postulate that telomere length in plants is subject to natural selection imposed by different environments.

中文翻译：

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不同端粒长度拟南芥基因型的可塑性、多效性和适应性权衡

• 端粒长度与机体对压力的反应有关，但其潜在机制尚不清楚。
• 在这里，我们研究了端粒长度变化对拟南芥对三种不同非生物环境的反应的影响，并测量了 32 种适应性、发育、生理和叶级解剖特征。
• 我们报告野生型和短端粒突变体的端粒长度对非生物胁迫具有抗性，而ku70突变体中伸长的端粒更具可塑性。我们检测到端粒长度对开花时间和关键叶片生理和解剖特征的显着多效性影响。此外，我们的数据揭示了一个显着的基因型与环境 (G × E) 相互作用对生殖适应性的影响，性能的收益和成本取决于生长条件。
• 这些结果意味着开花时间和生殖适应性之间的生活史权衡受到端粒长度变化的影响。我们假设植物中的端粒长度受不同环境强加的自然选择的影响。