Ongoing genetic research exploring how weeds grow and thrive could lead to better ways to control them in farmers’ fields.
Michael Foley, research leader with the United States Department of Agriculture in Fargo, North Dakota, is trying to understand dormancy in the seeds, crown and root buds of leafy spurge.
His goal is to find the genes that control vegetative reproduction.
Researchers have created a library of genes from leafy spurge and are now studying each one to understand how buds go dormant and why they grow at other times with certain treatments.
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Dormant seeds and buds are harder to control, so uncovering genetics that keep seeds from germinating can lead to better weed control measures.
In related work, scientists are looking to clone genes from weedy red rice in the hopes of controlling dormancy in wild oats.
“We’re trying to understand the fundamental biology of weeds and what makes weeds so competitive that they can outcompete crops,” Foley said.
That work could lead to ways to control weeds in the future and ultimately improve yields to feed a growing world population.
“We could envision taking the dormancy gene from one plant to control the dormancy of another,” said Foley.
Weedy red rice infests six of 10 fields in the southern U.S. The weed absorbs more nitrogen than the rice crop grown for food so it grows even larger after fertilizer applications.
Scientists want to single out the genes that cause weedy rice to absorb more nitrogen and use that information to make commercial rice crops more nitrogen efficient and higher yielding.
