Plasticity: Genotype-by-Environment Contribution (GxE)
Genotype-by-environment interactions explain almost 50% of the
variation between gardens in total NSC stores (Table 12 Figure 3A), but
only 3% of the variation between gardens in the proportion of NSC in
starch (Table 2, Figure 3B). Thus, genetic differences explain most of
the variation in total NSC stores, while plasticity explains most of the
variation in the proportion of starch vs. sugar.
In addition, some genotypes are more plastic than others, particularly
in the amount of NSC they allocate to starch (Table 2, Figure 4). This
pattern of increasing plasticity follows a latitudinal trend, where
northern populations are more plastic in each trait measured than
southern populations (Figure 4). However, while data trend this way,
they are not significant at the 0.05 level (Figure 4).