Quantitative Genetic and Environmental Mapping and Visual Exploration for Leaf Shape Variation

摘要

Shape has become an important biological trait, but the question of what are the respective roles of gene and geography (indicator of environment) and how they interplay to tune leaf shape traits has been an inextricable and controversial evolutionary topic. In this chapter, a random forest model is implemented to characterize the joint genetic-geographic interactive effects on shape and to discover their relative importance for shape traits. In addition, four visual data mining methods were adapted to closely visualize the shape patterns under different genotypes of significant markers. This study is an extension of a previously published real leaf shape project for Populus szechuanica var. tibetica and results in some noticeable characteristics that were not detected before.