TY - JOUR
T1 - Natural genetic variation in arabidopsis thaliana defense metabolism genes modulates field fitness
AU - Kerwin, Rachel
AU - Feusier, Julie
AU - Corwin, Jason
AU - Rubin, Matthew
AU - Lin, Catherine
AU - Muok, Alise
AU - Larson, Brandon
AU - Li, Baohua
AU - Joseph, Bindu
AU - Francisco, Marta
AU - Copeland, Daniel
AU - Weinig, Cynthia
AU - Kliebenstein, Daniel J.
PY - 2015/4/13
Y1 - 2015/4/13
N2 - Natural populations persist in complex environments, where biotic stressors, such as pathogen and insect communities, fluctuate temporally and spatially. These shifting biotic pressures generate heterogeneous selective forces that can maintain standing natural variation within a species. To directly test if genes containing causal variation for the Arabidopsis thaliana defensive compounds, glucosinolates (GSL) control field fitness and are therefore subject to natural selection, we conducted a multi-year field trial using lines that vary in only specific causal genes. Interestingly, we found that variation in these naturally polymorphic GSL genes affected fitness in each of our environments but the pattern fluctuated such that highly fit genotypes in one trial displayed lower fitness in another and that no GSL genotype or genotypes consistently out-performed the others. This was true both across locations and within the same location across years. These results indicate that environmental heterogeneity may contribute to the maintenance of GSL variation observed within Arabidopsis thaliana.
AB - Natural populations persist in complex environments, where biotic stressors, such as pathogen and insect communities, fluctuate temporally and spatially. These shifting biotic pressures generate heterogeneous selective forces that can maintain standing natural variation within a species. To directly test if genes containing causal variation for the Arabidopsis thaliana defensive compounds, glucosinolates (GSL) control field fitness and are therefore subject to natural selection, we conducted a multi-year field trial using lines that vary in only specific causal genes. Interestingly, we found that variation in these naturally polymorphic GSL genes affected fitness in each of our environments but the pattern fluctuated such that highly fit genotypes in one trial displayed lower fitness in another and that no GSL genotype or genotypes consistently out-performed the others. This was true both across locations and within the same location across years. These results indicate that environmental heterogeneity may contribute to the maintenance of GSL variation observed within Arabidopsis thaliana.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84928153794&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84928153794&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.7554/eLife.05604.001
DO - 10.7554/eLife.05604.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 25867014
AN - SCOPUS:84928153794
VL - 2015
SP - 1
EP - 28
JO - eLife
JF - eLife
SN - 2050-084X
IS - 4
M1 - e05604
ER -