Cross-pollination of plants and animals: wild quantitative genetics and plant evolutionary genetics

Abstract Evolutionary quantitative genetics, as applied to natural populations, sits at an interesting cross-road. Studies of long-lived, mobile animals have given us a first glimpse of the expression of genetic variation, natural selection, and evolution in free-living organisms. A parallel and largely non-overlapping evolutionary literature focuses on plants, which ‘sit still and wait to be counted’ to use John Harper’s phrase. These studies, which are almost exclusively single-generation experiments or common garden studies using a quantitative genetic mating design, have revealed abundant evidence for local adaptation, genotype × environment interactions for traits and fitness, and ecological context dependence of selection. Consequently, researchers are in the curious position where the life-histories of focal organisms have potentially constrained understanding: the insights into and potential role of local adaptation and genotype × environment interactions are difficult to apply to long-lived organisms not amenable to experimental manipulation. Similarly, the benefits of long-term monitoring, studying evolution in the wild, and characterising the natural expression of genetic variation in the field have been difficult to apply to short-lived plants, mainly due to the problems posed by seed banks and the difficulty of determining parentage in populations where individuals may have hundreds to thousands of offspring. This chapter explores the conceptual, analytical, and biological insights that might be obtained by applying lessons and techniques of experimental studies in plant evolutionary ecology to studies of wild vertebrate populations, and vice-versa.