Data from: Heritability of seed weight in Maritime pine, a relevant trait in the transmission of environmental maternal effects

Quantitative seed provisioning is an important life-history trait with strong effects on offspring phenotype and fitness. As for any other trait, heritability estimates are vital for understanding its evolutionary dynamics. However, being a trait in between two generations, estimating additive genetic variation of seed provisioning requires complex quantitative genetic approaches for distinguishing between true genetic and environmental maternal effects. Here, using Maritime pine as a long-lived plant model, we quantified additive genetic variation of cone and seed weight (SW) mean and SW within-individual variation. We used a powerful approach combining both half-sib analysis and parent–offspring regression using several common garden tests established in contrasting environments to separate G, E and G × E effects. Both cone weight and SW mean showed significant genetic variation but were also influenced by the maternal environment. Most of the large variation in SW mean was attributable to additive genetic effects (h2=0.55–0.74). SW showed no apparent G × E interaction, particularly when accounting for cone weight covariation, suggesting that the maternal genotypes actively control the SW mean irrespective of the amount of resources allocated to cones. Within-individual variation in SW was low (12%) relative to between-individual variation (88%), and showed no genetic variation but was largely affected by the maternal environment, with greater variation in the less favourable sites for pine growth. In summary, results were very consistent between the parental and the offspring common garden tests, and clearly indicated heritable genetic variation for SW mean but not for within-individual variation in SW.种子供给的数量性状是一项重要的生活史特征，对子代表型与适合度具有显著影响。与其他性状一致，对其遗传力的估计对于解析其进化动态至关重要。然而，由于该性状属于跨代表达的性状，要估算种子供给的加性遗传变异，需采用复杂的数量遗传学方法，以区分真实遗传效应与环境介导的母本效应。 本研究以长寿植物海岸松为模型，对球果重量、种子重量（seed weight, SW）均值以及种子重量的个体内变异开展了加性遗传变异量化分析。我们结合半同胞分析与亲子回归两种高效分析手段，并依托在不同环境下建立的多个同质园试验，实现了遗传（G）、环境（E）以及遗传与环境互作（G×E）效应的分离。 研究结果显示，球果重量与种子重量均值均存在显著的遗传变异，但同时也受母本环境的影响。种子重量均值的大部分变异可归因于加性遗传效应（狭义遗传力h²=0.55~0.74）。种子重量未表现出明显的G×E互作效应，尤其是在校正球果重量的协变量影响后，这表明母本基因型可主动调控种子重量均值，且不受分配至球果的资源总量影响。 相较于个体间变异（88%），种子重量的个体内变异水平较低（12%），且未检测到遗传变异，其主要受母本环境调控：在松树生长条件较劣的试验点，种子重量的个体内变异更大。 综上，亲本与子代同质园试验的结果高度一致，明确证实了种子重量均值存在可遗传的遗传变异，而种子重量的个体内变异则无此特性。