Admixture With Cultivated Sunflower Likely Facilitated Establishment and Spread of Wild Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) in Argentina.

A better understanding of the genetic and ecological factors underlying successful invasions is critical to mitigate the negative impacts of invasive species. Here, we study the invasion history of Helianthus annuus populations from Argentina, with particular emphasis on the role of post-introduction admixture with cultivated sunflower (also H. annuus) and climate adaptation driven by large haploblocks.

Introgression from local cultivars is a driver of agricultural adaptation in Argentinian weedy rice.

Weedy rice, a pervasive and troublesome weed found across the globe, has often evolved through fertilization of rice cultivars with little importance of crop-weed gene flow. In Argentina, weedy rice has been reported as an important constraint since the early 1970s, and, in the last few years, strains with herbicide-resistance are suspected to evolve. Despite their importance, the origin and genetic composition of Argentinian weedy rice as well its adaptation to agricultural environments has not been explored so far.

The role of intraspecific crop-weed hybridization in the evolution of weediness and invasiveness: Cultivated and weedy radish (Raphanus sativus) as a case study.

Premise: The phenotype of hybrids between a crop and its wild or weed counterpart is usually intermediate and maladapted compared to that of their parents; however, hybridization has sometimes been associated with increased fitness, potentially leading to enhanced weediness and invasiveness. Since the ecological context and maternal genetic effects may affect hybrid fitness, they could influence the evolutionary outcomes of hybridization. Here, we evaluated the performance of first-generation crop-weed hybrids of Raphanus sativus and their parents in two contrasting ecological conditions.

Hand preference in wild crab-eating capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) in the coastal area of Northest Brazil.

Handedness is a fundamental human trait, although recent research, especially on nonhuman primates, has shown that it is displayed by other animals as well (e.g., chimpanzees, gorillas).

Agricultural weeds: the contribution of domesticated species to the origin and evolution of feral weeds.

Agricultural weeds descended from domesticated ancestors, directly from crops (endoferality) and/or from crop-wild hybridization (exoferality), may have evolutionary advantages by rapidly acquiring traits pre-adapted to agricultural habitats. Understanding the role of crops on the origin and evolution of agricultural weeds is essential to develop more effective weed management programs, minimize crop losses due to weeds, and accurately assess the risks of cultivated genes escaping. In this review, we first describe relevant traits of weediness: shattering, seed dormancy, branching, early flowering and rapid growth, and their role in the feralization process.