Rapid weed adaptation and range expansion in response to agriculture over the past two centuries

Abstract

North America has experienced a massive increase in cropland use since 1800, accompanied more recently by the intensification of agricultural practices. Through genome analysis of present-day and historical samples spanning environments over the past two centuries, we studied the effect of these changes in farming on the extent and tempo of evolution across the native range of the common waterhemp ( Amaranthus tuberculatus ), a now pervasive agricultural weed. Modern agriculture has imposed strengths of selection rarely observed in the wild, with notable shifts in allele frequency trajectories since agricultural intensification in the 1960s. An evolutionary response to this extreme selection was facilitated by a concurrent human-mediated range shift. By reshaping genome-wide diversity across the landscape, agriculture has driven the success of this weed in the 21st century.

A lack of population structure characterizes the invasiveLonicera japonicain West Virginia and across eastern North America

“…using material sampled from herbarium specimens) will be extremely powerful in elucidating the environmental and genomic factors associated with rapid, post-invasion evolution (e.g. Kreiner et al 2022). Future studies should emphasize collecting densely sampled SNP data from populations in the native and invasive ranges (on a global scale) to identify: 1) fundamental differences in population structure and genetic diversity in the native vs. invasive ranges; 2) spatiotemporal patterns of variation linked to invasion routes and invasion history; and 3) evidence for adaptive variation linked to climate, soils, pathogens (or a lack thereof), and other environmental factors post-invasion.…”

A lack of population structure characterizes the invasive Lonicera japonica in West Virginia and across eastern North America1,2

“…Lonicera japonica represents an apt case study in global patterns of rapid evolution, as it is invasive on all continents aside from Antarctica (Schierenbeck 2004). Spatiotemporal comparisons of patterns of invasion history and genomic variation ( e.g., using material sampled from herbarium specimens) will be extremely powerful in elucidating the environmental and genomic factors associated with rapid, post-invasion evolution ( e.g., Kreiner et al . 2022).…”

“…Lonicera japonica represents an apt case study in global patterns of rapid evolution, as it is invasive on all continents aside from Antarctica (Schierenbeck 2004). Spatiotemporal comparisons of patterns of invasion history and genomic variation (e.g., using material sampled from herbarium specimens) will be extremely powerful in elucidating the environmental and genomic factors associated with rapid, post-invasion evolution (e.g., Kreiner et al 2022). Future studies should emphasize collecting densely sampled SNP data from populations in the native and invasive ranges (on a global scale) to identify: 1) fundamental differences in population structure and genetic diversity in the native vs. invasive ranges, 2) spatiotemporal patterns of variation linked to invasion routes and invasion history, and 3) evidence for adaptive variation linked to climate, soils, pathogens (or a lack thereof), and other environmental factors post-invasion.…”

Phenotypic evolution of agricultural crops

“…Disentangling how domestication impacted their genomic basis will be a major challenge. Recent findings on the fast evolution of weedy genomes, promoting quantitative variation in growth, and in stress and disturbance tolerance, might guide this research (Kreiner et al, 2022).…”