vejrgener

Vejrgener is a Danish term meaning weather genes, used informally to denote genetic variants that influence organisms’ responses to weather. It is not a formal category in genetics. They regulate plasticity in traits affected by weather, such as temperature tolerance, moisture use, and timing of life-history events.

In plants, vejrgener can affect flowering time, vernalization sensitivity, frost tolerance, drought resistance, stomatal behavior, and leaf morphology. In animals and microbial systems, similar genes may influence metabolism, thermoregulation, migration, or stress responses under different weather conditions. The concept emphasizes that phenotypes arise from the interaction between genotype and weather.

Detection and study rely on quantitative genetics, genome-wide association studies, and experimental trials under controlled weather variation or field studies across environments. Researchers map trait variation to genomic regions and seek candidate regulatory pathways.

Applications include breeding more climate-resilient crops, improving predictive models for yields and disease pressure under variable weather, and understanding evolutionary adaptation to climate change. However, because weather is a complex, dynamic factor, vejrgener are typically polygenic and context-dependent.

The term is mainly descriptive, used in Danish-language literature and some interdisciplinary discussions. It does not designate a single gene or universal mechanism, but rather a concept for the genetic basis of weather-related phenotypic plasticity.