Genetic variation and covariation in flowering time, floral display and rosette size in four Scandinavian Arabidopsis lyrata populations

• Levels of additive genetic variation and patterns of genetic correlations among traits influence evolutionary trajectories of traits in natural populations and among-population differentiation. With a nested paternal half-sib crossing design we examined the genetic architecture of flowering time, floral display and rosette size in four Scandinavian populations of the perennial herb Arabidopsis lyrata grown in a common-garden experiment in the Swedish native range. We specifically asked whether these traits vary genetically among populations, whether response to selection is constrained by lack of genetic variation or by genetic covariances among traits, and whether there is evidence of a trade-off between allocation to reproduction and vegetative growth, or between the number and size of flowers produced. The characters examined varied genetically among populations and displayed significant additive genetic variation in some populations. A strong negative genetic correlation between flowering start and number of flowers, and a strong positive correlation between petal length and width indicated that these pairs of traits do not evolve independently in some populations. G-matrices varied among populations suggesting that genetic (co)variances have evolved locally. There was no evidence of a trade-off between allocation to reproduction and vegetative growth or between the number and size of flowers, indicating that variation in resource acquisition was larger than variation in relative allocation to these different functions. 

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Evolutionsbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Evolutionary Biology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

G-matrix

genetic correlations

evolutionary potential

life-history tradeoffs

floral traits

Biology with specialization in Evolutionary Genetics

Biologi med inriktning mot evolutionär genetik

Biology with specialization in Ecological Botany

Biologi med inriktning mot ekologisk botanik

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)