Plasticity: Genotype-by-Environment Contribution (GxE)
Genotype-by-environment interactions explain almost 50% of the variation between gardens in total NSC stores (Table 12 Figure 3A), but only 3% of the variation between gardens in the proportion of NSC in starch (Table 2, Figure 3B). Thus, genetic differences explain most of the variation in total NSC stores, while plasticity explains most of the variation in the proportion of starch vs. sugar.
In addition, some genotypes are more plastic than others, particularly in the amount of NSC they allocate to starch (Table 2, Figure 4). This pattern of increasing plasticity follows a latitudinal trend, where northern populations are more plastic in each trait measured than southern populations (Figure 4). However, while data trend this way, they are not significant at the 0.05 level (Figure 4).