Andrew H Paterson, WenQian Kong, Robyn M Johnston, Pheonah Nabukalu, Guohong Wu, William L Poehlman, Valorie H Goff, Krista Isaacs, Tae-Ho Lee, Hui Guo, Dong Zhang, Uzay U Sezen, Megan Kennedy, Diane Bauer, Frank A Feltus, Eva Weltzien, Henry Frederick Rattunde, Jacob N Barney, Kerrie Barry, T Stan Cox, Michael J Scanlon
From noble beginnings as a prospective forage, polyploid Sorghum halepense ('Johnsongrass') is both an invasive species and one of the world's worst agricultural weeds. Formed by S. bicolor x S. propinquum hybridization, we show S. halepense to have S. bicolor -enriched allele composition and striking mutations in 5,957 genes that differentiate it from representatives of its progenitor species and an outgroup. The spread of S. halepense may have been facilitated by introgression from closely-related cultivated sorghum near genetic loci affecting rhizome development, seed size, and levels of lutein, a photochemical protectant and abscisic acid precursor...
2020: Frontiers in Genetics