Details of all detected QTL.

Genes do not act in isolation, and the effects of a specific variant at one locus can often be greatly modified by polymorphic variants at other loci. A good example is FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), which has been inferred to explain much of the flowering time variation in Arabidopsis thaliana. We use a set of 62 flc species-wide mutants to document pleiotropic, genotype-dependent effects for FLC on flowering as well as several other traits. Time to flowering was greatly reduced in all mutants, with the remaining variation explained mainly by allelic variation at the FLC target FT. Analysis of FT sequence variation suggested that extremely early combinations of FLC and FT alleles should exist in the wild, which we confirmed by targeted collections. Our study provides a proof of concept on how pan-genetic analysis of hub genes can reveal the true extent of genetic networks in a species.基因并非孤立发挥功能，某一基因座上的特定变异的表型效应，常可被其他基因座的多态性变异大幅修饰。典型案例为开花位点C（FLOWERING LOCUS C，FLC），已有研究推断其可解释拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）大部分的开花时间变异。本研究采用一套涵盖全物种的62份FLC突变体，系统阐明了FLC对开花及其他多项性状的多效性、基因型依赖性效应。所有突变体的开花时间均大幅缩短，剩余的表型变异主要由FLC的靶基因FT（FLOWERING LOCUS T）的等位变异所解释。对FT序列变异的分析表明，野生种群中应存在FLC与FT等位基因的极早开花组合，本研究通过针对性采样验证了这一推测。本研究为枢纽基因的泛遗传分析如何揭示物种内遗传网络的真实范围提供了概念验证。