We examined patterns of genetic variance and covariance in two traits (i) carbon stable isotope ratio delta13C (dehydration avoidance) and (ii) time to flowering (drought escape), both of which are putative adaptations to local water availability. Greenhouse screening of 39 genotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana native to habitats spanning a wide range of climatic conditions, revealed a highly signi...

Plants have developed sophisticated systems to adapt to local conditions during evolution, domestication and natural or artificial selection. The selective pressures of these different growing conditions have caused significant genomic divergence within species. The flowering time trait is the most crucial factor because it helps plants to maintain sustainable development. Controlling flowering...

Flowering is a crucial determinant for plant reproductive success and seed-set. Increasing temperature and elevated carbon-dioxide (e[CO2]) are key climate change factors that could affect plant fitness and flowering related events. Addressing the effect of these environmental factors on flowering events such as time of day of anthesis (TOA) and flowering time (duration from germination till fl...

Understanding the genetic basis of natural variation is of primary interest for evolutionary studies of adaptation. In Capsella bursa-pastoris, a close relative of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), variation in flowering time is correlated with latitude, suggestive of an adaptation to photoperiod. To identify pathways regulating natural flowering time variation in C. bursa-pastoris, we have s...

Flowering time is under the control of multiple environmental cues such as photoperiod and exposure to cold temperatures (vernalization). A few regulators named integrators of flowering time signals (LEAFY, SOC1 /AGL20 and FT ) integrate inputs from the different flowering cascades and convey the resulting outcome to floral meristem identity genes at the shoot apex. Here we review the current k...

Stressors and heterogeneity are ubiquitous features of natural environments, and theory suggests that when environmental qualities alter flowering schedules through phenotypic plasticity, assortative mating can result that promotes evolutionary divergence. Therefore, it is important to determine whether common ecological stressors induce similar changes in flowering time. We review previous stu...

Plants respond to pathogens either by investing more resources into immunity which is costly to development, or by accelerating reproductive processes such as flowering time to ensure reproduction occurs before the plant succumbs to disease. In this study we explored the link between flowering time and pathogen defense using the interaction between Arabidopsis thaliana and the root infecting fu...

The genetic basis of phenotypic traits is of great interest to evolutionary biologists, but their contribution to adaptation in nature is often unknown. To determine the genetic architecture of flowering time in ecologically relevant conditions, we used a recombinant inbred line population created from two locally adapted populations of Arabidopsis thaliana from Sweden and Italy. Using these RI...