experimental evolution
Response to low-dose herbicide selection in self-pollinated Avena fatua
When applied at the correct plant stage and dose, herbicides are highly toxic to plants. At reduced, low herbicide doses (below the recommended dose) plants can survive and display continuous and quantitative variation in dose–survival responses. Recurrent (directional) selection studies can reveal whether such a phenotypic variation in plant survival response to low herbicide dose is heritable and leads to herbicide resistance. In a common experimental garden study, we have subjected a susceptible population of self-pollinated hexaploid Avena fatua to low-dose recurrent selection with the ACCase-inhibiting herbicide diclofop-methyl for three consecutive generations.
Inheritance of evolved resistance to a novel herbicide (pyroxasulfone)
Agricultural weeds have rapidly adapted to intensive herbicide selection and resistance to herbicides has evolved within ecological timescales. Yet, the genetic basis of broad-spectrum generalist herbicide resistance is largely unknown. This study aims to determine the genetic control of non-target-site herbicide resistance trait(s) that rapidly evolved under recurrent selection of the novel lipid biosynthesis inhibitor pyroxasulfone in Lolium rigidum.