Not all weeds are created equal: a database approach uncovers differences in the sexual system of native and introduced weeds

Weedy species provide excellent opportunities to examine the process of successful colonization of novel environments. Despite the influence of the sexual system on a variety of processes from reproduction to genetic structure, how the sexual system of species influences weediness has received only limited consideration. We examined the hypothesis that weedy plants have an increased likelihood of being self-compatible compared with nonweedy plants; this hypothesis is derived from Baker's law, which states that species that can reproduce uniparentally are more likely to successfully establish in a new habitat where mates are lacking. We combined a database of the weed (weedy/nonweedy) and introduction status (introduced/native) of plant species found in the USA with a database of plant sexual systems and determined whether native and introduced weeds varied in their sexual systems compared with native and introduced nonweeds. We found that introduced weeds are overrepresented by species ...

杂草物种为探究物种成功定殖新生境的过程提供了绝佳的研究契机。尽管有性系统（sexual system）对从生殖到遗传结构在内的诸多过程均存在影响，但物种的有性系统如何影响其杂草性，迄今仅得到了有限的关注。本研究检验了这一假说：相较于非杂草植物，杂草植物具有更高的自交亲和（self-compatible）概率；该假说源自贝克法则（Baker's law），其核心内容为：能够进行单亲繁殖的物种，更易在缺乏交配伴侣的新生境中成功建立种群。我们整合了美国境内植物物种的杂草性（杂草/非杂草）与引入状态（外来/本土）数据库，以及植物有性系统数据库，以此探究本土杂草、外来杂草与本土非杂草、外来非杂草在有性系统上是否存在差异。本研究发现，外来杂草中……的物种占比过高。