Data from: Modeling the influence of genetic and environmental variation on the expression of plant life cycles across landscapes

Organisms develop through multiple life stages that differ in environmental tolerances. The seasonal timing, or phenology, of life-stage transitions determines the environmental conditions to which each life stage is exposed and the length of time required to complete a generation. Both environmental and genetic factors contribute to phenological variation, yet predicting their combined effect on life cycles across a geographic range remains a challenge. We linked submodels of the plasticity of individual life stages to create an integrated model that predicts life-cycle phenology in complex environments. We parameterized the model for Arabidopsis thaliana and simulated life cycles in four locations. We compared multiple “genotypes” by varying two parameters associated with natural genetic variation in phenology: seed dormancy and floral repression. The model predicted variation in life cycles across locations that qualitatively matches observed natural phenology. Seed dormancy had larger effects on life-cycle length than floral repression, and results suggest that a genetic cline in dormancy maintains a life-cycle length of 1 year across the geographic range of this species. By integrating across life stages, this approach demonstrates how genetic variation in one transition can influence subsequent transitions and the geographic distribution of life cycles more generally.生物会经历多个生命阶段，各阶段的环境耐受度存在差异。生命阶段转换的季节节律，亦即物候（phenology），决定了各生命阶段所处的环境条件，以及完成一个世代所需的时长。环境与遗传因素共同驱动物候变异，但要预测二者在地理范围内对生命周期的综合影响仍是一项挑战。我们将单个生命阶段的可塑性子模型进行整合，构建出可在复杂环境中预测生命周期物候的综合模型。我们以拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）为对象完成模型参数化，并在四个地点模拟了其生命周期。我们通过调整两个与物候自然遗传变异相关的参数——种子休眠与开花抑制——来对比多个‘基因型’的差异。该模型预测的不同地点间的生命周期变异，在定性层面与观测到的自然物候特征相符。相较于开花抑制，种子休眠对生命周期时长的影响更大；研究结果表明，休眠相关的遗传渐变群维持了该物种在整个地理分布范围内的一年生命周期。通过整合各生命阶段的特征，本研究方法阐明了某一生命转换过程中的遗传变异，如何影响后续的转换过程，以及更广泛意义上的生命周期地理分布格局。