Project status update: Heritability of fitness–qGen1

2015 measuring qGen1: finding EA in a sea of flowering big bluestem!

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”). In 2015 we assessed survival and fitness measures of the qGen1 plants. Here’s a summary of what we found:

Read more about the qGen1 experiment.

Start year: 2003

Location: exPt1