{"id":444,"date":"2026-08-26T16:51:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T22:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/mckay\/?post_type=research&#038;p=444"},"modified":"2026-08-26T16:51:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T22:51:41","slug":"barbed-goatgrass","status":"publish","type":"research","link":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/mckay\/research\/barbed-goatgrass\/","title":{"rendered":"Adaptation and Range Expansion in Barbed\u00a0Goatgrass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- block -->\n<div class=\"custom-block-wrappper text-block stylized lite top-spacing-default bottom-spacing-default\">\n\n    <p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Aegilops\u00a0triuncialis\u00a0(Barbed\u00a0Goatgrass) is an annual grass that was introduced from its native range in Eurasia, into California in 1924. In the past 30 years this species has become a problematic invasive in California. The invasive species is a federal and state-listed noxious weed due to its poor palatability for\u00a0livestock, and\u00a0is a recognized threat to western rangelands and native habitats. It is especially worrisome because of its ability to invade serpentine soil communities, which are\u00a0very high\u00a0in endemism and\u00a0relatively free\u00a0of exotic invasives. Aegilops\u00a0triuncialis\u00a0has been intensively studied because of its close relationship with cultivated wheat, Triticum aestivum, allowing the infrastructure and resources of wheat genomics to be applied to genetic questions in\u00a0goatgrass\u00a0invasions. We are studying the post-introduction evolutionary dynamics of this invasive species as well as the genetics of range expansion in severely bottlenecked populations of A.\u00a0triuncialis\u00a0in multiple sites in California. We have proposed that:<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">1) Maternal environmental effects (cross-generational phenotypic plasticity) are an important type of adaptive plasticity\u00a0facilitating\u00a0the persistence and initial spread of this invasive species.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">2) Mutation accumulation in quantitative traits is an important source of genetic variation for adaptive change in\u00a0selfing\u00a0plant invaders that experience extreme bottlenecks.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Maternal environmental effects were studied in three serpentine sites where subpopulations were grown in \u201cedge\u201d and \u201ccore\u201d habitats\u00a0in order to\u00a0answer questions relating to the interaction between maternal and offspring genotypes and environments.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">To study the accumulation of mutation in A.\u00a0triuncialis, we first\u00a0identified\u00a0populations founded by a single homozygous haplotype\u00a0in order to\u00a0test the hypothesis that populations derived from a single introduction event can be viewed as replicates within a mutation accumulation experiment. Because of the extreme bottlenecks that may often occur in biological invasions, this could\u00a0provide\u00a0a unique opportunity to examine how the basic evolutionary process of mutation can contribute to invasiveness.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<!-- END block -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"class_list":["post-444","research","type-research","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/mckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/mckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/mckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/research"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/mckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}