Data from: "A rainfall-manipulation experiment with 517 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions"

The gold standard for studying natural selection and adaptation in the wild is to quantify lifetime fitness of individuals from natural populations that have been grown together in a common garden, or that have been reciprocally transplanted. By combining fitness values with species traits and genome sequences, one can infer selection coefficients at the genetic level. Here we present a rainfall-manipulation experiment with 517 whole-genome sequenced natural accessions of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana spanning the global distribution of the species. The experiments were conducted in two field stations in contrasting climates, in the Mediterranean and in Central Europe, where we built rainout shelters and simulated high and low rainfall. Using custom image analysis we quantified fitness- and phenology-related traits for 23,154 pots, which contained about 14,500 plants growing independently, and over 310,000 plants growing in small populations (max. 30 plants). This large field experiment dataset, which associates fitness and ecologically-relevant traits with genomes, will provide an important resource to test eco-evolutionary genetic theories and to understand the potential evolutionary impacts of future climates on an important plant model species.<br>

在野外开展自然选择与适应性研究的金标准，是对源自自然种群、于同质园（common garden）中共同栽培或经互易移植的个体的终生适合度进行量化。将适合度数值与物种性状及基因组序列相结合，便可在遗传层面推断选择系数。本研究针对覆盖拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）全球分布范围的517份经全基因组测序的自然种质，开展了一项降雨调控实验。实验分别在气候差异显著的地中海与中欧两个野外站点开展，我们在两地搭建了防雨棚（rainout shelter），并模拟了高、低降雨情境。本研究采用定制化图像分析方法，对23154个盆钵的适合度及物候相关性状进行了量化：其中约14500株植物为单株独立生长，另有超过310000株植物以小种群形式栽培（种群最大规模为30株）。该数据集将适合度、生态相关性状与基因组信息相结合，可为检验生态进化遗传学理论、解析未来气候变化对这一重要植物模式物种的潜在进化影响提供重要的研究资源。