Honors Thesis Archive

Author	Jeanette Klamfoth
Title	Is flowering time heritable?: Quantifying the heritability of flowering time in a native prairie perennial, Echinacea angustifolia
Department	Biology
Advisor	Dr. Jennifer Ison, Dr. Matthew Collier, Dr. Doug Andrews
Year	2015
Honors	Departmental Honors
Full Text	View Thesis (771 KB)
Abstract	Flowering time is a key component to plant reproduction and is a determinant in the genetic diversity of a plant population. Echinacea angustifolia is a long-lived, self-incompatible, prairie plant that has been investigated in the Echinacea Project in western Minnesotan grasslands since 1995. This study investigated the potential heritability of flowering time in E. angustifolia and the potential for adaptation by time. I first assigned paternity using 11 microsatellite loci to 65 offspring flowering in 2013 and 209 offspring flowering in 2014 in an experimental plot. Through quantitative genetic regression models, I determined narrow-sense heritability and discussed the potential for temporal genetic structure in fragmented prairie populations. Flowering time was found to be a heritable trait in 2014 offspring with a regression coefficient of 0.16 ± 0.073 (p=0.027), but not heritable in 2013. These results indicate that persistent phenological assortative mating by flowering time over generations could cause severe ecological and evolutionary consequences, including increases in inbreeding and reduced reproductive success in fragmented plant populations.