Testing the evolutionary potential of an alpine plant: Phenotypic plasticity in response to growth temperature outweighs parental environmental effects and other genetic causes of variation

Phenotypic plasticity and rapid evolution are fundamental processes by which organisms can maintain their function and fitness in the face of environmental changes. Here we quantified the plasticity and evolutionary potential of an alpine herb Wahlenbergia ceracea. Utilising its mixed-mating system, we generated outcrossed and self-pollinated families that were grown in either cool or warm environments, and that had parents that had also been grown in either cool or warm environments. We then analysed the contribution of environmental and genetic factors to variation in a range of phenotypic traits including phenology, leaf mass per area, photosynthetic function, thermal tolerance, and reproductive fitness. The strongest effect was that of current growth temperature, indicating strong phenotypic plasticity. All traits except thermal tolerance were plastic, whereby warm-grown plants flowered earlier, grew larger, produced more reproductive stems compared to cool-grown plants. Flowering o..., Dataset was collected from a large glasshouse experiment of Wahlenbergia ceracea (waxy bluebell) plants grown under two growth temperatures. This experiment follows on from years of controlled environment and controlled crosses to generate F3 lines, including growing the F2 parents under two growth temperatures as well. Phenotypic trait measurements were taken using a variety of standard ecophysiological measurements, and these include measuring flowering onset phenology, chlorophyll content (SPAD units), Leaf Mass per Area (LMA), photosystem II efficiency and capacity (FV/FM, φPSII), heat and cold tolerance (Tcrit-hot and Tcrit-cold from temperature dependent chlorophyll fluorscence; T-F0), biomass, numbers of reproductive stems, seed and capsule mass. Details are provided in full in the manuscript. Post-data collection processing of dataset .csv files were done using R v4.3.1. The R script used for data analyses, Tables, Figures, and supporting data is provided as part of the data arc..., , # Data from: Testing the evolutionary potential of an alpine plant: Phenotypic plasticity in response to growth temperature outweighs parental environmental effects and other genetic causes of variation

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.34tmpg4s9](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.34tmpg4s9)

Dataset contains data from a glasshouse experiment under different growth temperature treatments on over 1,000 F3 generation plants from controlled crosses and self-pollination of F2 parental plants that were also exposed to two temperature treatments. We collected data on multiple phenotypic traits of the F3 plants and analysed phenotypic plasticity, heritability, and selection on these data using Bayesian mixed models including additive genetic (pedigree) and maternal effects.

## Description of the data and file structure

The data is contained in three datasheets in one .xlsx file: the main experiment dataset, pedigree, and capsule mass data. A key is provided to give explanation for the column names...