Data from: Air-borne genotype by genotype indirect genetic effects are substantial in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans

Genotype by genotype indirect genetic effects (G × G IGEs) occur when the phenotype of an individual is influenced by an interaction between its own genotype and those of neighbour individuals. Little is known regarding the relative importance of G × G IGEs compared with other forms of direct and indirect genetic effects. We quantified the relative importance of IGEs in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans, a species in which IGEs are likely to be important as air-borne social interactions are known to affect growth. We used a collection of distantly related wild isolates, lab strains and a set of closely related mutation accumulation lines to estimate the contribution of direct and indirect genetic effects on mycelium growth rate, a key fitness component. We found that indirect genetic effects were dominated by G × G IGEs that occurred primarily between a focal genotype and its immediate neighbour within a vertical stack, and these accounted for 11% of phenotypic variation. These results indicate that G × G IGEs may be substantial, at least in some systems, and that the evolutionary importance of these interactions may be underappreciated, especially in microbes. We advocate for a wider use of the IGE framework in both applied (for example, choice of varietal mixtures in plant breeding) and evolutionary genetics (kin selection/kin competition studies).Dataset used for the analysesMycelium growth rate data used of the linear mixed model analysesDataRode_et_al2017.csvScript for mixed model analysesScript for the analyses with ASReml-R (see http://www.vsni.co.uk/downloads/asreml/version-3-upgrade/)Mixed_Model_Analyses.RmdScript and figures from mixed model analysesOutput when knitting the file "Mixed_Model_Analyses.Rmd" using Rstudio (https://www.rstudio.com/) PowerAnalyses.Rmd: Code for the power analysesMixed_Model_Analyses.htmlScript for power analysesCode for power analysesPowerAnalyses.RmdScript and figures from power analysesOutput when knitting the file "PowerAnalyses.Rmd" using Rstudio (https://www.rstudio.com/)PowerAnalyses.htmlR environment for Fig. S4R environment including the 1000 simulations for Fig. S4 (can be loaded using the command: "load(SimulFigS4new.R)")SimulFigS4new.RR environment for Fig. S5R environment including the 1000 simulations for Fig. S5 (can be loaded using the command: "load(SimulFigS5new.R)")SimulFigS5new.REstimates of the direct genetic effectsEstimates of the direct genetic effects of the 41 strainsDGEGenotypicValues20170113.csvEstimates of the G x G indirect genetics effectsEstimates of the 417 GxG indirect genetic effects in the best model for dataset3 analyses (used for Fig. S6)GbyGGenotypicValues20170113.cs