Data from: Connecting the sun to flowering in sunflower adaptation

Species living in seasonal environments often adaptively time their reproduction in response to photoperiod cues. We characterized the expression of genes in the flowering-time regulatory network across wild populations of the common sunflower, Helianthus annuus, that we found to be adaptively differentiated for photoperiod response. The observed clinal variation was associated with changes at multiple hierarchical levels in multiple pathways. Paralog-specific changes in FT homolog expression and tissue-specific changes in SOC1 homolog expression were associated with loss and reversal of plasticity respectively, suggesting that redundancy and modularity are gene network characteristics easily exploited by natural selection to produce evolutionary innovation. Distinct genetic mechanisms contribute to convergent evolution of photoperiod responses within sunflower, suggesting regulatory network architecture does not impose strong constraints on the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.栖息于季节性环境中的物种，通常会响应光周期信号，适应性地调整繁殖时机。我们对普通向日葵（Helianthus annuus）野生种群的开花时间调控网络中的基因表达特征进行了表征，发现这些种群在光周期响应方面存在适应性分化。所观测到的渐变变异，与多条通路中多个层级的调控变化相关联。旁系同源特异性的FT同源基因表达变化，以及组织特异性的SOC1同源基因表达变化，分别与可塑性的丧失和逆转相关联。这表明基因冗余与模块化是极易被自然选择利用以产生进化创新的基因网络特征。不同的遗传机制共同促成了向日葵内部光周期响应的趋同进化，这表明调控网络架构并未对表型可塑性的进化形成强烈约束。