Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Sep;3(5-6):494-504.
doi: 10.1111/j.1752-4571.2010.00140.x. Epub 2010 Jul 14.

Crops gone wild: evolution of weeds and invasives from domesticated ancestors

Norman C Ellstrand  1 , Sylvia M Heredia  1 , Janet A Leak-Garcia  1 , Joanne M Heraty  1 , Jutta C Burger  2 , Li Yao  1 , Sahar Nohzadeh-Malakshah  1 , Caroline E Ridley  3
Affiliations

Crops gone wild: evolution of weeds and invasives from domesticated ancestors

Norman C Ellstrand et al. Evol Appl. 2010 Sep.

Abstract

The evolution of problematic plants, both weeds and invasives, is a topic of increasing interest. Plants that have evolved from domesticated ancestors have certain advantages for study. Because of their economic importance, domesticated plants are generally well-characterized and readily available for ecogenetic comparison with their wild descendants. Thus, the evolutionary history of crop descendants has the potential to be reconstructed in some detail. Furthermore, growing crop progenitors with their problematic descendants in a common environment allows for the identification of significant evolutionary differences that correlate with weediness or invasiveness. We sought well-established examples of invasives and weeds for which genetic and/or ethnobotanical evidence has confirmed their evolution from domesticates. We found surprisingly few cases, only 13. We examine our list for generalizations and then some selected cases to reveal how plant pests have evolved from domesticates. Despite their potential utility, crop descendants remain underexploited for evolutionary study. Promising evolutionary research opportunities for these systems are abundant and worthy of pursuit.

Keywords: de-domestication; domesticate; endoferality; exoferality; hybridization; invasive species; rapid evolution; weed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pathways from domesticated plant to problem plant. Pest plants directly descended from domesticated plants (‘endoferal’sensuGressel 2005a) can occur with or without evolutionary change. Plants that are the result of hybridization between a domesticated taxon and another taxon (‘exoferal’sensuGressel 2005a) are necessarily evolutionarily different than their crop progenitor(s).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Andersson MS, De Vicente MC. Gene Flow between Crops and Their Wild Relatives. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press; 2010.
    1. Arnold ML. Evolution through Genetic Exchange. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 2006.
    1. Ayal S, Levy AA. Wheat domestication and de-domestication – What are the odds? In: Gressel J, editor. Crop Ferality and Volunteerism. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press; 2005. pp. 167–173.
    1. Bagavathiannan MV, Julier B, Barre P, Gulden RH, Van Acker RC. Genetic diversity of feral alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) populations occurring in Manitoba, Canada and comparison with alfalfa cultivars: an analysis using SSR markers and phenotypic traits. Euphytica. 2010;173:419–432.
    1. Baker HG. The evolution of weeds. Annual Review of Ecology. 1974;5:1–24.