Evolving insights on weedy rice

Agricultural weeds that have evolved from de-domesticated (feral) crop plants cause millions of dollars in annual yield losses worldwide and are one of the primary barriers to global crop productivity. Weedy rice (Oryza sativa f. spontanea) is a de-domesticated form of rice that has evolved multiple times independently from different cultivated rice varieties. This weedy crop relative has recently emerged as a genomic model system for studying the genetic basis of agricultural weed evolution and the mechanisms that govern the parallel evolution of independently-evolved weed strains. In this review we highlight findings from recent genetics and genomics studies that have led to our current understanding of weedy rice evolution.