Chad Westberg: 2^nd year Ph.D. I will examine how maternal and paternal plants affect the fitness of their offspring in response to two different light environments in the model system Arabidopsis thaliana and its close relative, the native annual Arabis lyrata. Plants will be grown in the greenhouse under light conditions that mimic natural environments and will be selfed (A. thaliana) and crossed (A. lyrata). Offspring will be planted in a factorial design which will allow me to characterize four aspects of plant response to the different environments. (1) Quantify differences in traits associated with fitness when plants are grown in environments that differ in light quantity and quality. (2) Determine whether offspring have higher fitness if they are grown in the same light environment as their parents. (3) Determine whether genotypes differ in the transmission of parental environmental effects. (4) Determine whether species (A. thaliana and A. lyrata) differ in the transmission of parental environmental effects.