Abstract

Seed dormancy is a complex life history trait that determines the timing of germination and is crucial for local adaptation. Genetic studies of dormancy are challenging, because the trait is highly plastic and strongly influenced by the maternal environment. Using a combination of statistical and experimental approaches, we show that multiple alleles at the previously identified dormancy locus DELAY OF GERMINATION1 jointly explain as much as 57% of the variation observed in Swedish Arabidopsis thaliana, but give rise to spurious associations that seriously mislead genome-wide association studies unless modeled correctly. Field experiments confirm that the major alleles affect germination as well as survival under natural conditions, and demonstrate that locally adaptive traits can sometimes be dissected genetically.

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  1. Envel Kerdaffrec

    Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, Vienna, Austria
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8667-6850
  2. Danièle L Filiault

    Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, Vienna, Austria
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  3. Arthur Korte

    Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, Vienna, Austria
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0831-1463
  4. Eriko Sasaki

    Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, Vienna, Austria
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  5. Viktoria Nizhynska

    Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, Vienna, Austria
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  6. Ümit Seren

    Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, Vienna, Austria
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  7. Magnus Nordborg

    Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocenter, Vienna, Austria
    For correspondence
    magnus.nordborg@gmi.oeaw.ac.at
    Competing interests
    Magnus Nordborg, Reviewing editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7178-9748

Funding

European Research Council (268962 (MAXMAP))

  • Magnus Nordborg

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2016, Kerdaffrec et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Envel Kerdaffrec
  2. Danièle L Filiault
  3. Arthur Korte
  4. Eriko Sasaki
  5. Viktoria Nizhynska
  6. Ümit Seren
  7. Magnus Nordborg
(2016)
Multiple alleles at a single locus control seed dormancy in Swedish Arabidopsis
eLife 5:e22502.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22502

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22502