Natural populations persist in complex environments, where biotic stressors, such as pathogen and insect communities, fluctuate temporally spatially. These shifting pressures generate heterogeneous selective forces that can maintain standing natural variation within a species. To directly test if genes containing causal for the Arabidopsis thaliana defensive compounds, glucosinolates (GSL) control field fitness are therefore subject to selection, we conducted multi-year trial using lines...

One of the most fundamental questions faced by all organisms is when best time to reproduce maximize survival and success their offspring. In plants, there are two broad categories reproductive strategies—annuals that once die (monocarpic or semelparous) perennials repeatedly cycle through vegetative phases (used here synonymously with polycarpic iteroparous) (Fig. 1). Not surprisingly, given importance reproduction fitness, studies on flowering related life history decisions have been...

Significance Daily rhythms of gene expression ensure that biological processes occur at the optimal time day. In plants, temporally regulated include traits ecological and agricultural importance, understanding how changes in daily modify such has broad implications. We find natural genetic variation can accurately temporal waveforms during day by influencing light signaling pathways, rather than circadian rhythms. further show transcriptional patterns induced alleles are sufficient to...

The classic domestication scenario for grains and fruits has been portrayed as the lucky fixation of major-effect "domestication genes." Characterization these genes plus recent improvements in generating novel alleles (e.g., by gene editing) have created great interest de novo new crops from wild species. While editing technologies may accelerate some genetic aspects domestication, we caution that should be understood an iterative process rather than a singular event. Changes human social...

A disintegrin and metalloproteinase15 (ADAM15) has been shown to be upregulated mediate endothelial hyperpermeability during inflammation sepsis. This molecule contains multiple functional domains with the ability modulate diverse cellular processes including cell adhesion, extracellular matrix degradation, ectodomain shedding of transmembrane proteins. These characteristics make ADAM15 an attractive therapeutic target in various diseases. The lack pharmacological inhibitors specific...

Circadian clocks have evolved independently in all three domains of life, suggesting that internal mechanisms time-keeping are adaptive contemporary populations. However, the performance consequences either discrete or quantitative clock variation rarely been tested field settings. Clock sensitivity diverse segregating lines to environment remains uncharacterized as do statistical genetic parameters determine evolutionary potential. In studies with Arabidopsis thaliana, we found major...

Premise of the study: Thousands years selective breeding has prioritized above-ground yield, with little regard for changes happening below-ground. Despite their central role in plant success and resilience, our knowledge roots lags behind structures. Accurately phenotyping root traits is often labor-intensive, expensive, destructive. In order to advance understanding fundamental biology underlying systems, integrate hard-to-measure into programs, high-throughput non-destructive methods are...

Floral attraction traits can significantly affect pollinator visitation patterns, but adaptive evolution of these may be constrained by correlations with other traits. In some cases, molecular pathways contributing to floral are well characterized, offering the opportunity explore loci potentially underlying variation among individuals. Here, we quantify range in UV patterning (i.e. 'bulls-eye nectar guides) crop and wild accessions Brassica rapa. We then use experimental crosses examine...

Despite the growing number of studies showing that genotype × environment and epistatic interactions control fitness, influences epistasis on adaptive trait evolution remain largely uncharacterized. Across three field trials, we quantified aliphatic glucosinolate (GSL) defense chemistry, leaf damage, relative fitness using mutant lines Arabidopsis thaliana varying at pairs causal GSL genes to test impact variation. We found accumulation was primarily influenced by additive genetic variation,...

Summary Circadian rhythms are key regulators of diverse biological processes under controlled settings. Yet, the phenotypic and fitness consequences quantitative variation in circadian remain largely unexplored field. As with other pathways, characterization outputs field may reveal novel clock functions. Across consecutive growing seasons, we test for associations between flowering phenology, plant size, shoot architecture, fruit set mutants segregating progenies Arabidopsis thaliana...

Herbaceous perennial species are receiving increased attention for their potential to provide both edible products and ecosystem services in agricultural systems. Many legumes (Fabaceae Lindl.) of special interest due nitrogen fixation carried out by bacteria roots production protein-rich, seeds. However, herbaceous have yet enter widespread use as pulse crops, the response wild, artificial selection seed yield remains under investigation. Here we compare cultivated wild accessions...

Life history theory predicts the evolution of trait combinations that enhance fitness, and occurrence trade-offs depends in part on magnitude variation growth rate or acquisition. Using recombinant inbred lines, we examined genetic architecture age size at reproduction across abiotic conditions encountered by cultivars naturalized populations Brassica rapa. We found genotypes are plastic to seasonal setting, such was accelerated under summer annual variances for varied simulated settings. an...

Plant developmental dynamics can be heritable, genetically correlated with fitness and yield, undergo selection. Therefore, characterizing the mechanistic connections between genetic architecture governing plant development resulting ontogenetic of plants in field settings is critically important for agricultural production evolutionary ecology. We use hierarchical Bayesian Function-Valued Trait (FVT) models to estimate Brassica rapa growth curves throughout ontogeny, across two treatments,...

Abstract The circadian clock regulates many aspects of leaf gas supply and biochemical demand for CO 2 , is hypothesized to improve plant performance. Yet the extent which may regulate efficiency photosystem II (PSII) photoprotective mechanisms such as heat dissipation less explored. Based on measurements chlorophyll a fluorescence, we estimated maximum PSII in light ( Fv′/Fm′ ) by nonphotochemical quenching NPQ ). We further dissected total into its main components, qE (pH‐dependent...

Premise of the Study The timing major phenological transitions is critical to lifetime fitness, and life history theory predicts differences for annual perennial plants. To correctly time these transitions, many plants rely on environmental cues such as exposure extended periods cold, which may occur at different stages throughout their lifetime. Methods We studied role cold stages, by jointly exposing seed (stratification) rosettes (vernalization) cold. used 23 populations Mimulus guttatus...

Long-term agricultural sustainability is dependent in part on our capacity to provide productive, nutritious crops that minimize the negative impacts of agriculture landscape. Perennial grains within an agroforestry context offers one solution: These plants produce large root systems reduce soil erosion and simultaneously have potential nutrients combat malnutrition. However, nutrient compositions wild, perennial, herbaceous species, such as those related common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) are...

Environmental variation affects a plant's life cycle by influencing the timing of germination and flowering, duration growing season. Yet we know little information about how environmental heterogeneity generates in schedules consequences for growth fecundity through genetic plastic responses. We use an annual population Mimulus guttatus which, nature, seeds germinate both fall spring. investigate whether there is basis to germination, effect on fecundity, if flowering respond plastically...

The circadian clock facilitates coordination of the internal rhythms an organism to daily environmental conditions, such as light-dark cycle one day. Circadian period length (the duration endogenous cycle) and phase timing peak activity) exhibit quantitative variation in natural populations. Here, we measured June, July September three Arabidopsis thaliana recombinant inbred line were estimated from bioluminescence a genetic construct between native gene (COLD CIRCADIAN RHYTHM RNA BINDING 2)...

Sainfoin ( Onobrychis spp.) is a perennial forage legume that also attracting attention as pulse with potential for human consumption. The dual use of sainfoin underpins diverse research and breeding programs focused on improving lines pulses, which driving the generation complex datasets describing high dimensional phenotypes in post-omics era. To ensure multiple user groups, example, breeders selecting those edible seed, can utilize these rich datasets, it necessary to develop common...

Reproductive timing is a key life-history trait that impacts the pool of available mates, environment experienced during flowering, and expression other traits through genetic covariation. Selection on phenology, its consequences traits, has considerable implications in context ongoing climate change shifting growing seasons. To test this, we grew field-collected seed from wildflower Mimulus guttatus greenhouse to assess standing variation for flowering time covariation with traits. We then...

Abstract Linkage and association mapping populations are crucial public resources that facilitate the characterization of trait genetic architecture in natural agricultural systems. We define a large nested panel (NAM) from 14 publicly available recombinant inbred line (RILs) Arabidopsis thaliana, which share common recurrent parent (Col-0). Using genotype-by-sequencing approach (GBS), we identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; range 563-1525 per population) subsequently built...

Annual and perennial life history transitions are abundant among angiosperms, understanding the phenotypic variation underlying span shifts is a key endeavor of plant evolutionary biology. Comparative analyses trait correlation networks annual plants increasingly important as new herbaceous crops being developed for edible seed. However, it remains unclear how seed to vegetative growth relationships correlate with span.To assess relative roles genus in predicting correlations, we measured...