Heritability of fitness–qGen1

Description: The qGen1 (quantitative genetics) experiment investigates the heritability of traits in Echinacea angustifolia. During the summer of 2002 we crossed plants from the 1996 & 1997 cohorts of exPt1. We harvested heads, dissected achenes, and germinated seeds over the winter. In the Spring of 2003 we planted the resulting 4468 seedlings (this great number gave rise to this experiment’s nickname “big batch”). We annually assess the survival and fitness of these plants in exPt1.

Start year: planted in 2003; crossed in 2002; parents planted in 1996 & 1997; parents collected as seed from remnants in 1995 & 1996

A head bagged & ready for crossing.

Location: exPt1

Products: We have an awesome dataset that we will share once the paper is published. Ruth Shaw is working on an analysis of the qGen1 dataset.

Overlaps with: qGen2 & qGen3

Link to flog posts: Read updates about experiment qgen1 on our flog (field blog) as written by members of Team Echinacea.