New Paper in ‘PLoS One’

Multi-phase US spread and habitat switching of a post-Columbian invasive, Sorghum halepense

Sezen, Barney, Atwater, Pederson, Pederson, Chandler, Cox, Cox, Dotray, Kopec, Smith, Schroeder, Wright, Jiao, Kong, Goff, Auckland, Rainville, Pierce, Compton, Lemke, Philips, Kerr, Mettler, Paterson (pdf)

I’m happy to announce that PLoS One has accepted Uzay Sezen’s paper documenting the population genetics of colonizing Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense).

Using a panel of almost 500 Johnsongrass accessions from 70 sites throughout the US, Dr. Sezen showed that Johnsongrass was introduced to the US at two locations. It has subsequently colonized much of North America, demonstrating surprising genetic variation even at range margins.

Johnsongrass populations have also differentiated strikingly along habitat boundaries, with genetic clusters segregating strongly between crop populations and those found in roadsides and other disturbed environments.