Genomic and phenotypic adaptation tunes an endangered California plant to the fog that climate change and wind energy will reshape

In the endangered Deinandra increscens subsp. villosa across central California, 31 fog-associated genomic peaks include a centromere-linked haplotype that uniquely tracks long-term fog and germination-year fog.

• Why it matters: Coastal fog can buffer dry-season water stress, but the genomic basis of fog adaptation in Mediterranean-endemic plants is largely unknown, limiting climate- and infrastructure-aware conservation.
• What they did: Whole-genome resequencing across the fragmented range and genome-wide association analyses identified polygenic local adaptation to fog, with GO enrichment implicating cell wall remodelling, osmoregulation, developmental timing, light perception, and immunity.
• The result: Herbarium data and a year combining extreme drought with unusually rich fog showed signals consistent with early-season environmental filtering, including increased long runs of homozygosity and a smoother allele-frequency landscape, enabling candidate climate-resilient genotypes for management.