Kin discrimination in allelopathy and consequences for agricultural weed control.

Abstract

Among all biotic stress types (i.e. pathogens, pests and weeds), weeds have the largest potential for yield reduction (larger than the other two combined) (Oerke, 2006). Chemical control of weeds is coming under increasing pressure due to concerns about their health- and environmental impacts and increasing herbicide resistance of weeds. As a consequence there is an increased interest in ecological weed control, of which development of weed-suppressive crops can be an important part (Bastiaans, Paolini, & Baumann, 2008). In the current issue, Xu, Cheng, Kong, and Meiners (2021) for the first time, show that kin recognition (the ability of plants to distinguish genetically related individuals from strangers) can make rice plants more competitive against weeds potentially being a new strategy in ecological weed control. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.