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.

生物历经多个生活史阶段发育，各阶段对环境的耐受特性存在差异。生活史阶段转换的季节时序，即物候（phenology），决定了各生活史阶段所经历的环境条件，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跨度内对生活史周期的联合效应仍是一项难题。我们将单个生活史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活史周期物候的集成模型。我们以拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）为模式物种完成模型参数化，并在四个不同地点模拟了其生活史周期。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（seed dormancy）与开花抑制（floral repression）——来对比多种"基因型"的差异。该模型预测的不同地点间生活史周期变异，在定性层面与实测自然物候特征相符。种子休眠对生活史周期时长的影响大于开花抑制，研究结果表明，休眠性状的遗传渐变群（genetic cline）维持了该物种在整个地理分布范围内1年的生活史周期长度。通过整合不同生活史阶段的调控过程，本研究方法阐明了单个阶段转换中的遗传变异如何影响后续的阶段转换，以及更广泛意义上的生活史周期地理分布格局。