Genomic-based epidemiology reveals gene flow and independent origins of
glyphosate resistance in Bassia scoparia populations across North
America
Abstract
Genomic-based epidemiology can provide insight into the origins and
spread of herbicide resistance mechanisms in weeds. We used kochia
(Bassia scoparia) populations resistant to the herbicide glyphosate from
across western North America to test the alternative hypotheses that 1)
a single EPSPS gene duplication event occurred initially in the Central
Great Plains and then subsequently spread to all other geographical
areas now exhibiting glyphosate-resistant kochia populations or that 2)
gene duplication occurred multiple times in independent events in a case
of parallel evolution. We used qPCR markers previously developed for
measuring the various units of the EPSPS tandem duplication to
investigate whether all glyphosate-resistant plants had the same EPSPS
repeat structure. We also investigated population structure using simple
sequence repeat (SSR) markers to determine the relatedness of kochia
populations from across the Central Great Plains, Northern Plains, and
the Pacific Northwest. We identified three distinct EPSPS-duplication
haplotypes that had geographic associations with the Central Great
Plains, Northern Plains, and Pacific Northwest. Population structure
revealed a group of populations around the first reported occurrence of
glyphosate resistance in the Central Great Plains, a separate group of
Pacific Northwest populations, and some relatedness of populations from
geographically isolated areas. The results support at least three
independent origins of glyphosate resistance in kochia, followed by
substantial and mostly geographically localized gene flow to spread the
resistance alleles into diverse genetic backgrounds.