What is it about?
Agricultural weeds are responsible for much crop loss, yet we know little of how weeds evolve. We examine the genetic basis of weediness traits in two type of weedy rice, which we know to have evolved independently. We particularly focus on whether the same genetic regions are implicated in the evolution of traits that are similar between the two weeds.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that weedy plants can evolve weed-adaptive traits through use of different genes, even if the weeds come from similar genetic ancestors. This suggests that there are many evolutionary paths towards weediness. Besides implying that agricultural weeds can arise with great facility, our results show that there is great flexibility in how similar traits can evolve.
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This page is a summary of: Similar traits, different genes? Examining convergent evolution in related weedy rice populations, Molecular Ecology, December 2012, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/mec.12147.
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