Promoting an evolutionary approach of herbicide resistance

Resistance rapidly and continuously evolves in weed populations undergoing herbicide selective pressure, so that the long-term outcome of herbicide selection remains unpredictable. Most published herbicide resistance studies focussed on the resistance mechanisms, with diagnosis as an applied aim. While elucidating resistance genetic bases is a prerequisite to understand and predict resistance evolution, resistance studies should go beyond the mere description of mechanisms. This means implementing an evolutionary approach of resistance by investigating the probability of appearance or initial frequency of resistance genes, the genetic architecture of resistance, resistance spread and the as…