Weed evolution: Genetic differentiation among wild, weedy, and crop radish

Approximately 200 weed species are responsible for more than 90% of crop losses and these comprise less than one percent of all named plant species, suggesting that there are only a few evolutionary routes that lead to weediness. Agricultural weeds can evolve along three main paths: they can be escaped crops, wild species, or crop-wild hybrids. We tested these three hypotheses in weedy radish, a weed of small grains and an emerging model for …