School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia.
Mol Ecol. 2013 May;22(9):2366-8. doi: 10.1111/mec.12277.
Invasive species provide excellent study systems to evaluate the ecological and evolutionary processes that contribute to the colonization of novel environments. While the ecological processes that contribute to the successful establishment of invasive plants have been studied in detail, investigation of the evolutionary processes involved in successful invasions has only recently received attention. In particular, studies investigating the genomic and gene expression differences between native and introduced populations of invasive species are just beginning and are required if we are to understand how plants become invasive. In the current issue of Molecular Ecology, Hodgins et al. (2013) tackle this unresolved question, by examining gene expression differences between native and introduced populations of annual ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia. The study identifies a number of potential candidate genes based on gene expression differences that may be responsible for the success of annual ragweed in its introduced range. Furthermore, genes involved in stress response are over-represented in the differentially expressed gene set. Future experiments could use functional studies to test whether changes in gene expression at these candidate genes do in fact underlie changes in growth characteristics and reproductive output observed in this and other invasive species.
入侵物种为评估有助于新环境殖民化的生态和进化过程提供了极好的研究系统。虽然已经详细研究了有助于入侵植物成功建立的生态过程，但最近才开始关注成功入侵所涉及的进化过程。特别是，研究调查了入侵物种的本地和引入种群之间的基因组和基因表达差异，这是了解植物如何成为入侵物种所必需的。在本期《分子生态学》中，Hodgins 等人（2013 年）通过检查豚草（Ambrosia artemisiifolia）的本地和引入种群之间的基因表达差异，解决了这个悬而未决的问题。该研究基于基因表达差异确定了一些可能是豚草在引入地区成功的潜在候选基因。此外，在差异表达基因集中，与应激反应相关的基因过度表达。未来的实验可以使用功能研究来测试这些候选基因的表达变化是否确实是导致该物种和其他入侵物种观察到的生长特征和繁殖产量变化的基础。
