Abstract
Weedy rice is a representative of the extensive group of feral weeds that derive from crops, but has returned to the lifestyle of a wild species. These weeds develop either from a hybridization of crops with wild relatives (exoferality), or by mutation of crops to weedy forms (endoferality). Due to the close relation of weed and crop, the methods for weed‐targeted containment are limited to date. A deeper understanding of the development of such weeds might help to design more efficient and sustainable approaches for weed management. Weedy rice poses a serious threat to rice yields worldwide. It is widely accepted that weedy rice has originated independently in different regions all over the world. However, details of its evolution have remained elusive. In the current study, we investigated the history of weedy rice in northern Italy, the most important rice‐growing area in Europe. Our approach was to analyze genes related to weedy traits (SD1, sh4, Rc) in weedy rice accessions compared to cultivars, and to integrate these results with phenotypic and physiological data, as well as historical information about rice farming in Italy. We arrive at a working model for the timeline of evolution of weedy rice in Italy indicating that both exoferality and endoferality acted as forces driving the development of the diverse weedy rice populations found in the region today. Models of weed evolution can help to predict the direction which weed development might take and to develop new, sustainable methods to control feral weeds.
Highlights
Weeds and invasive plant species impair agriculture worldwide
The current work focused on the genetic and phenotypic aspects of traits that had been central to the domestication of rice in the
The basic motivation was to determine whether the observed de-domestication of weedy rice was using ancestral “wild” alleles that had been cryptically preserved in the gene pool of domesticated rice, or whether ferality was achieved de novo by changes of domesticated alleles
Summary
Weeds and invasive plant species impair agriculture worldwide. They coexist with crops in agricultural habitats and often are close relatives of crops. Weedy rice is characterized by a set of attributes such as increased plant height, severe seed shattering, and a red pericarp to just name the most obvious examples (Fogliatto, Vidotto, & Ferrero, 2012) It is these traits that cause the massive problems following infestation with weedy rice: This weed outcompetes the cultigens, causing severe yield losses. Due to its relatively young and well-documented history of rice agriculture, and the absence of autochthonous crop wild relatives, Italy represents a perfect model area to follow the history of weedy rice along with the cultivated varieties in the region, and to gain an understanding of the evolution of weeds within agro-ecosystems. This allowed to gain insight into the evolution of weedy rice in the sampling area, leading to an extended working model on the timeline of weedy rice evolution in northern Italy
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