The Evolutionary Genomics of Invasive Weedy Rice

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PI: Kenneth M. Olsen (Washington University St. Louis)Co-PIs: Ana Caicedo (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Yulin Jia (University of Arkansas)Red rice is a weedy form of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) that competesaggressively with the crop in the southern U.S., reducing yields andcontaminating harvests with its small, dark grain. Previous assessments ofgenetic diversity suggest that some red rice strains are closely related to wildAsian Oryza species, others resemble Asian domesticated rice, and others showclose genetic similarity to U.S. crop varieties. This project examines DNAsequence diversity and linkage disequilibrium in genomic regions underlyingseveral weed-associated traits in U.S. red rice and in randomly selected locidistributed across the genome. DNA sequence data generated by the project willbe used to compare alternative hypotheses on the roles of foreign weedintroduction, hybridization, and selection in shaping the red rice genome. Thesedata will be important in determining the origin(s) of the weed and the geneticmechanisms by which it adapts to U.S. agricultural fields. These insights canprovide information towards devising effective weed control strategies.Access to project outcomes:DNA sequence data generated from the project will be available through Genbank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) and Gramene (http://www.gramene.org/), as well as a project website accessible via http://biology4.wustl.edu/olsen/.