The spread of resistance to acetolactate synthase inhibiting herbicides in a wind borne, self-pollinated weed species, Lactuca serriola L.

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Resistance to ALS-inhibiting herbicides in Lactuca serriola first appeared in the northern Yorke Peninsula in South Australia in 1994, with resistance soon observed at a number of additional sites. The rapid appearance of resistance at many sites could be attributed to a number of independent selection events or to movement of resistant seed from the original field. ISSRs were used to genotype plants collected in 1999 and 2004 from roadsides or fields in an attempt to determine the importance of these two factors in the spread of herbicide resistance in L. serriola. In 1999 and 2004, chlorsulfuron-resistant L. serriola plants were found in both fields and roadsides with resistant plants being more frequent in fields than roadsides and more frequent in 2004 than in 1999. Genetic relationships generated using UPGMA analysis indicated the presence of more than one genotype within the herbicide resistant populations sampled for both years and suggested independent selection as well as movement of resistant seed had occurred. DNA extracted from samples collected in 1999 was used to sequence a highly conserved region of the ALS gene that coded for a single amino acid modification within the gene. Four different mutations were identified within the resistant samples and these mutations tended to cluster on a geographical basis. Together these data provide evidence for both multiple independent evolutionary events and for the potential movement of individual genotypes as far as 43 km in the region.

Y-Q. Lu, J. Baker and C. Preston