Alopecurus myosuroides (blackgrass)infestation in wheat
Weed Ecology and Evolution
A. tuberculatus herbicide
dose response
Paul Neve, Principal Investigator
Weeds are a major constraint to crop production and global food security. Weedy and invasive plants evolve in response to selection by
crop cultivation, weed management, and environmental change making weedy plants ideal model organisms for basic and applied
research in plant ecology. Our research aims to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes resulting in the establishment,
invasion, and persistence of weedy plants and to apply this knowledge to management issues.
Research Framework
We are interested in how weeds have adapted and continue to adapt to
agroecosystems. Understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes that dictate
the success of weed species must underpin attempts to design weed management
strategies that are robust to weed adaptation (evolution-free management). Our study
systems include key weed species, but we also use model organisms where these can
provide additional experimental tractability and biological insight. We use modelling
approaches to integrate knowledge from empirical studies, to generate hypotheses
about important system processes and to inform and optimise management.
Meet the Team
Evolution
• Evolution of resistance to herbicides
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Resistance surveys
Resistance mechanisms
Genetics and inheritance of resistance
Fitness costs and life history trade-offs
Selection experiments
Experimental evolution
We use the single-celled ‘plant as a
model in herbicide resistance research’
Back (from left to right): Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz (inset), Craig Knight,
Mato Lagator, Helen Cockerton, Neale Grant, Nicole Pereira, Sam Coe
(based in Chemistry Department).
Front: Melissa Bridges, Laura Davies, Paul Neve, John Lynch.
Not pictured: Ding-Rong Dong, Richard Chattaway.
• Evolutionary ecology of weeds
Models
Out of the lab: The model plant
Arabidopsis thaliana can provide insight
into weed evolutionary ecology
Simulation and statistical
models
• Weed population dynamics
• Evolution of resistance to
herbicides
• Seed germination and
recruitment
Weed
Management
• Herbicide resistance management
• Integrated weed management
• Management of soil seed banks
• Weed management in GM crops
• Development, testing and optimisation
of novel herbicides
Ecology
• Weed life histories and life history
variation
• Ecology of UK blackgrass populations
• Local adaptation in Arabidopsis
thaliana
Herbicide application
and resistance selection
in A. myosuroides
• Weed seed ecology
• Weed seed dormancy, germination
and recruitment
Evolved resistance to glyphosate
in Amaranthus tuberculatus is
widespread in US cropping
systems dominated by GM crops
• Weeds and climate change
Characterizing variation in A.
myosuroides populations
Current funded Projects
Experimental evolution of resistance to herbicides in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Mato Lagator, The Leverhulme Trust)
Life history variation in UK weed populations (Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz, Neale Grant, Nicole Pereira, DEFRA)
Modelling the evolution of herbicide resistance in US cropping systems (Melissa Bridges, Syngenta Crop Protection)
Fitness costs associated with resistance to glyphosate in Amaranthus tuberculatus (Helen Cockerton, BBSRC with Syngenta)
Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of herbicide resistance selection (John Lynch, BBSRC)
Local adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana (Richard Chattaway, BBSRC ‘environmental change’ studentship)
Potential evolution of resistance to glyphosate in UK weed populations (Laura Davies, BBSRC with Dow AgroSciences)
Resistance to ACCase and ALS herbicides in UK Alopecurus myosuroides populations (Craig Knight, BBSRC with Bayer CropScience)
Seed germination, dormancy and emergence in Chenopodium album (Ding Rong-Dong, PhD studentship)
The evolution of resistance to glyphosate in perennial Mediteranean cropping systems (with Institute of Sustainable Agriculture,
Cordoba, Spain and Monsanto)
• Evolution and management of herbicide resistance in Echinochloa crus-galli (with University of Arkansas, USA)
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Contact Information
Dr. Paul Neve
School of Life Sciences
University of Warwick
Wellesbourne CV35 9EF
Gibbet Hill CV4 7AL
P.Neve@warwick.ac.uk
+44(0)24 7657 5843
www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/res
earch/weedecologyandmanagement/