Complex influences on plant development: the interaction of genotype, environment, and parent environment

by

Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Thursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT

Charlotte Babbin
Charlotte Babbin

Charlotte is a rising Junior (’22) from Guilford, CT. Her interests include playing flute, theater, and climate justice activism. She is double-majoring in Biology and Science in Society.

Abstract: Until recently, biologists considered the traits of an individual organism to be determined entirely by its genotype and its environment. However, new findings have shown that the parents’ environment can also influence an organism’s development via inherited regulatory factors. In an ongoing, large-scale greenhouse growth experiment, we are testing the impact and interactions of genotype, environment, and parental environment on the development of the common annual plant Polygonum persicaria. Last summer, replicate parent individuals of 12 inbred P. persicaria genotypes were grown in two controlled environmental treatments, full sun and moderate shade. This summer, we are growing their offspring, distributed into the same two environments to test all combinations of parent and offspring environment for each genotype while tracking functionally important phenotypic traits such as emergence day, height, canopy area, and leaf number throughout their life cycles. ANOVA and MANOVA analyses test the impact on each trait of genotype, offspring environment, parent environment, and the interactions among these effects. An important finding so far is that the strength of the parental effects on seedling height differed for offspring in shade and in sun, and that plants with different genotypes expressed distinctive responses to these complex two-generation environments. This confirms the complex interaction of these three factors in influencing seedling height. This data is part of a larger project through which we will continue to look at phenotypic traits and transcriptomic changes at multiple developmental time points to gain insight into the complex interaction between genotype, parental environment, and the individual’s current environment at different life stages.

Summer2020poster_edited-Babbin

Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Thursday, July 30th 1:15-2:30pm EDT

1 thought on “Complex influences on plant development: the interaction of genotype, environment, and parent environment”

  1. Great poster Charlotte! It is great to see you back for a second summer, albeit a somewhat different experience this year. Hope you are doing well.

Leave a Comment