Abstract
The elevation of atmospheric CO(2) leads to a decline in plant mineral content, which might pose a significant threat to food security in coming decades. Although few genes have been identified for the negative effect of elevated CO(2) on plant mineral composition, several studies suggest the existence of genetic factors. Here, we performed a large-scale study to explore genetic diversity of plant ionome responses to elevated CO(2), using six hundred Arabidopsis thaliana accessions, representing geographical distributions ranging from worldwide to regional and local environments. We show that growth under elevated CO(2) leads to a global decrease of ionome content, whatever the geographic distribution of the population. We observed a high range of genetic diversity, ranging from the most negative effect to resilience or even to a benefit in response to elevated CO(2). Using genome-wide association mapping, we identified a large set of genes associated with this response, and we demonstrated that the function of one of these genes is involved in the negative effect of elevated CO(2) on plant mineral composition. This resource will contribute to understand the mechanisms underlying the effect of elevated CO(2) on plant mineral nutrition, and could help towards the development of crops adapted to a high-CO(2) world.