Modeling weedy and invasive plants
The Transcriptome of Morning Glories: a model system for studying weedy and invasive plants
Project Contacts: John Stinchcombe, University of Toronto Gina Baucom, University of Michigan
Weedy plant species, or those that grow 'out of place,' cause annual agricultural economic declines on the order of 10% worldwide. Despite their threat to the world's food supply, how weedy plant species adapt to the agricultural regime is relatively unknown, although many of the most noxious weeds are persistent problems due to herbicide resistance. Other traits are indicated in the ability of plants to become weeds. In general, weedy plants will exhibit early germination, seed dormancy and seed banking, rapid growth and high vigor, as well as the ability to produce offspring both sexually and asexually. Although these traits are indicated in weediness, the genetic changes involved in weediness (excepting those responsible for herbicide resistance) have as yet been relatively unexplored. There is also a remarkable dearth of genomic resources for weedy plants.
Many species of Ipomoea, or the morning glory genus, are well-known agricultural pests that can reduce a farmer’s yield by as much as 80%. While the distribution of some of these problematic morning glory species ranges from the southeastern United States to South America, other species of the genus are less widespread, and occur primarily in South America. The genetic and genomic features that differentiate the weedy, widespread morning glories from their more restricted close relatives are unknown. In this subproject of the 1kp plant transcriptome study, we aim to compare transcript abundance between several species of morning glory and their closest, non-weedy relatives to determine the genetic components underlying ‘weediness’ and ‘invasiveness’. Comparing each noxious weed to its closest non-weed relative will minimize phylogenetic and comparative analysis problems. The species chosen for this project are: Ipomoea purpurea, I. hederacea, I. coccinea, I. quamoclit, I. nil, I. pubescens, I. lobata, I. lindheimeri and I. indica. The first five species are relatively widespread, whereas I. pubescens, I. lobata, I. lindheimeri and I. indica exhibit a more restricted range. We believe this study has the potential to reveal significant new insights into weedy and invasive plant species, as well as open the door to future morning glory genomics studies.