Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to express different phenotypesin response to environmental changes. A given genotype may change their morphology,physiology, developmental timing, and/or behavior in response to changes in bioticfactors (e.g. presence/absence of neighbors) and/or abiotic factors (e.g. temperature). Forexample, the annual plant Arabidopsis thaliana responds to seasonal temperature cues byaltering its flowering schedule. When seeds are cold treated (cold stratification,germinating after winter) plants flower earlier than if not (germinating before winter).They may also flower earlier if shaded by a neighbor. Plants rarely experience only oneenvironmental factor and their plastic ability depends on their genotype. To test thehypothesis that plasticity to seed stratification influences plant interactions, I planted 3inbred genotypes of A. thaliana with different flowering time responses to coldstratification in the center of a 3x3 grid (1.5 cm apart) with other plants (interaction) orwith no surrounding plants (no interaction). To test if plants respond to differences ingenotype of surrounding plants, they were planted in all possible inter- and intra-straincombinations. Replicates of interaction treatments were cold stratified or not and thecenter plant monitored for age at first flowering and number of fruits. To examine wholegenome expression patterns in these environments, leaf tissues were harvested forhybridization to microarrays. We found that A. thaliana RILs are capable of recognizingneighbor genotypes but this ability was influenced by cold stratification of seeds.Additionally, A. thaliana RILs differentially expressed different genes in response to coldstratification of seeds and neighbor interaction.
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