Below we highlight some of the exciting research projects being conducted in the Growth Facilities.
Amanda Peake of the Stinchcombe lab has planted Arabidopsis thaliana individuals from North Africa, Europe, and Asia in a common garden experiment to identify new ecologically relevant genes. The semi-natural environment of the rooftop exposes the plants to complex environmental cues, the response to which is not always captured in greenhouse and growth chamber experiments. They will then compare this data with previous studies conducted in growth chambers to understand how gene-by-environment interactions affect phenotypic variation.
Pictured: the Arabidopsis thaliana common garden experiment through the seasons
Alice DesRoches of the Weis lab studies how phenology influences hard and soft selection in Brassica rapa.
Pictured above are controlled crosses between strains differing in phenology.
Dr. Arthur Weis of the Weis lab is conducting research into the mode of inheritance of Dame’s Rocket floral coloration.
“These are seedlings of Dame’s rocket, getting their needed dose of winter. It is the plant responsible for the profusion of white, pink and violet flowers you see along Ontario roadsides during May. This biennial grows as a rosette of leaves over its first summer. It then needs several months of chilling to trigger flowering in its second year. We want to know what maintains the unusually high diversity for flower colour, but first were need to work out the genetics. The pictured plants are grown from seed produced by controlled crosses between plants at Koffler Scientific Reserve.” -Dr. Arthur Weis
Photo by Bill Cole