In recent years, the climate trend in temperate zones such as Europe and North America has been towards episodes of severe hot weather which are projected to occur more frequently and/or severely over coming decades (IPCC fifth assessment report, 2014). This is predicted to have major effects on ecosystems and the biodiversity of wild species, such as Arabidopsis. Polysaccharides play a key role in plant growth and resistance to stress and how their production will be affected by climate change remains an open question. Mucilage is a hydrogel of polysaccharides formed around imbibed seeds of certain species and is an amenable model system for studying polysaccharide production. We have previously found that natural accessions of Arabidopsis show variation in mucilage production that may be locally adapted to particular climates. To determine how climate change can impact polysaccharide synthesis, we have examined the effect of temperature on the production of seed mucilage polymers. Polysaccharide composition and properties in natural mucilage variants exhibiting divergent traits under standard growth conditions have been compared after seed production at different temperatures. How these are related to the modulation of genes encoding key enzymes in mucilage polysaccharide synthesis will also be presented.