Epistasis × environment interactions among Arabidopsis thaliana glucosinolate genes impact complex traits and fitness in the field

TY - JOUR

T1 - Epistasis × environment interactions among Arabidopsis thaliana glucosinolate genes impact complex traits and fitness in the field

AU - Kerwin, Rachel E.

AU - Feusier, Julie

AU - Muok, Alise

AU - Lin, Catherine

AU - Larson, Brandon

AU - Copeland, Daniel

AU - Corwin, Jason A.

AU - Rubin, Matthew J

AU - Francisco, Marta

AU - Li, Baohua

AU - Joseph, Bindu

AU - Weinig, Cynthia

AU - Kliebenstein, Daniel James

N1 - © 2017 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2017 New Phytologist Trust.

PY - 2017/8

Y1 - 2017/8

N2 - Despite the growing number of studies showing that genotype × environment and epistatic interactions control fitness, the influences of epistasis × environment interactions on adaptive trait evolution remain largely uncharacterized. Across three field trials, we quantified aliphatic glucosinolate (GSL) defense chemistry, leaf damage, and relative fitness using mutant lines of Arabidopsis thaliana varying at pairs of causal aliphatic GSL defense genes to test the impact of epistatic and epistasis × environment interactions on adaptive trait variation. We found that aliphatic GSL accumulation was primarily influenced by additive and epistatic genetic variation, leaf damage was primarily influenced by environmental variation and relative fitness was primarily influenced by epistasis and epistasis × environment interactions. Epistasis × environment interactions accounted for up to 48% of the relative fitness variation in the field. At a single field site, the impact of epistasis on relative fitness varied significantly over 2 yr, showing that epistasis × environment interactions within a location can be temporally dynamic. These results suggest that the environmental dependency of epistasis can profoundly influence the response to selection, shaping the adaptive trajectories of natural populations in complex ways, and deserves further consideration in future evolutionary studies.

AB - Despite the growing number of studies showing that genotype × environment and epistatic interactions control fitness, the influences of epistasis × environment interactions on adaptive trait evolution remain largely uncharacterized. Across three field trials, we quantified aliphatic glucosinolate (GSL) defense chemistry, leaf damage, and relative fitness using mutant lines of Arabidopsis thaliana varying at pairs of causal aliphatic GSL defense genes to test the impact of epistatic and epistasis × environment interactions on adaptive trait variation. We found that aliphatic GSL accumulation was primarily influenced by additive and epistatic genetic variation, leaf damage was primarily influenced by environmental variation and relative fitness was primarily influenced by epistasis and epistasis × environment interactions. Epistasis × environment interactions accounted for up to 48% of the relative fitness variation in the field. At a single field site, the impact of epistasis on relative fitness varied significantly over 2 yr, showing that epistasis × environment interactions within a location can be temporally dynamic. These results suggest that the environmental dependency of epistasis can profoundly influence the response to selection, shaping the adaptive trajectories of natural populations in complex ways, and deserves further consideration in future evolutionary studies.

KW - Journal Article

U2 - 10.1111/nph.14646

DO - 10.1111/nph.14646

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 28608555

SN - 0028-646X

VL - 215

SP - 1249

EP - 1263

JO - New Phytologist

JF - New Phytologist

IS - 3

ER -