Genetic effects in response to extremes in precipitation in Arabidopsis thaliana

Climate change impacts the environment of the Midwestern United States, leading to an unpredictability in rainfall. The precipitation pattern now common to the Midwest region is extremely wet springs and dry summers. This irregularity of precipitation may cause issues with plant growth. In this experiment, we research the effect irregular watering has on the growth of 100 different Arabidopsis thaliana recombinant inbred lines (RIL). They were obtained from the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center at the Ohio State University and were bred from a cross of Ler (Landsberg erecta) x Col (Columbia). The phenotypes that we will measure are time to sprout, time to flower, time to seed, survival, stomata density, seed size, and leaf size. An analysis of variance will be used to calculate the variance and heritability of the phenotypes. We will also calculate genetic correlations among the traits and perform a quantitative trait locus analysis to look for areas of the genome that affect the traits. The data will help identify genes and gene regions with an effect on plant fitness in the Midwestern environment impacted by climate change