Premium
ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENETIC DETERMINANTS OF PLANT SIZE IN VIOLA SORORIA
Author(s) -
Antlfinger Ann E.,
Curtis William F.,
Solbrig Otto T.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1985.tb00446.x
Subject(s) - biology , heritability , fecundity , relative growth rate , leaf size , violaceae , rhizome , genetic variation , botany , population , growth rate , evolutionary biology , demography , biochemistry , geometry , mathematics , sociology , gene
Survivorship and fecundity in the forest herb, Viola sororia , are size‐dependent. The basis of size variation among individuals of Viola sororia was investigated with a uniform environment experiment. Plants collected from natural populations were vegetatively reproduced and grown under two light regimes in a greenhouse. Analysis of quantitative variation showed: 1) significant differences between light treatments for characters related to plant shape and relative growth rate; 2) significant among‐genet variation for plant size, plant shape and relative growth rate but none for physiological characters; and 3) a size threshold for cleistogamous seed production and rhizome production. Heritability estimates for the characters associated with plant size and shape ranged from 0.09 to 0.39, indicating significant genetic determination for these traits. In addition, among‐genet differences in relative growth rate were substantial. The results of this study suggest that the size variation found in natural populations is not solely a function of environmental heterogeneity but is significantly influenced by the genotypes composing the population.