Analysis of local spread of metamitron‐resistant Chenopodium album patches in Belgium

Abstract

Aper J, Mechant E, De Riek J, Van Laere K, Bulcke R & Reheul D (2012). Analysis of local spread of metamitron‐resistant Chenopodium album patches in Belgium. Weed Research52, 421–429. Summary Tracing spread of weeds with molecular markers can give valuable information on the importance of migration mechanisms. This study investigated the local spread of metamitron‐resistant Chenopodium album patches in the west of the province West Flanders (Belgium) using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. During the summer of 2009, leaf samples of C. album plants were harvested in 27 patches, distributed over 10 sugar beet fields and one maize field. The fields were grouped in four local clusters, each corresponding to a farmer who cultivated these fields. A cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence procedure identified the Ser264 to Gly mutation in the D1 protein, endowing resistance to metamitron, a key herbicide applied in sugar beet. The majority of the sampled plants within a patch (97% on average) carried this mutation. Genetic variation among the four farmers’ locations (12%) and among the C. album patches within the farmers’ locations (14%) was significant according to amova (P < 0.001). In addition, Mantel tests confirmed a positive correlation between genetic distance (linearised фPT between pairs of patches) and the logarithm of geographic distance for the complete data set (Mantel coefficient significant at P = 0.001), suggesting isolation by distance. Nevertheless, genetic similarity between patches from different fields indicated that seed transport by agricultural machinery and manure is likely to have an important impact on the spread of metamitron‐resistant biotypes. Farmers should become aware of the resistance problem as soon as possible, in order to prevent further spread in their fields.

Germination ecology of Chenopodium album L. and implications for weed management

“…While C . album is a self-pollinated species, some cross-pollination by wind also occurs in the species [ 9 ]. A huge contributor to the rapid spread of this species is its high seed production of more than 70,000 mature seeds per plant, and seeds can remain viable in the soil for 30 to 40 years [ 10 ].…”

Are road verges corridors for weed invasion? Insights from the fine‐scale spatial genetic structure of Raphanus raphanistrum

“…Significant amounts of revenue are spent on weed control globally (Pimentel et al ., ). Another important consideration is whether plants become resistant to herbicides and how far this resistance will spread across the landscape (Aper et al ., ). In the context of agricultural weeds like R. raphanistrum , mutations causing herbicide resistance will likely spread over long distances through human‐mediated transport, given the pivotal role of long‐distance dispersal in shaping the population structure in R. raphanistrum .…”

Photosystem II Inhibitor Resistance in the Columbia Basin of Washington State

“…The CAPS protocol initially developed by Thiel et al (2010) was slightly modified by Aper et al (2012) and this modified method used to determine the presence or absence of the Ser 264 Gly mutation. The psbA gene was amplified with PCR in a 22-ll reaction mixture of 2 ll normalized sample DNA, 0.3 ll MangoTaq TM polymerase (Bioline, Taunton, MA), 4 ll of 53 colored MangoTaq TM Buffer (Bioline), 1.6 ll of 2.5 mM dNTPs, 1.0 ll of 10 lM forward primer CHEAL (5 0 -CCRTTTARGTTGAAAGCCATAGT-3 0 ; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO), 1.0 ll of 10 lM reverse primer CHEAL-rev (5 0 -GTWGCTGGTGTATTCGGYGG-3 0 ; Sigma-Aldrich), 0.5 ll of 50 mM MgCl 2 , and 11.6 ll of nuclease-free water.…”