6533b7d9fe1ef96bd126bde4

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Evolution of common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) resistance to herbicides : identification of genetic determinisms and application to molecular diagnosis

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Common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.), a particularly troublesome and allergenic weed, is mainly controlled in agricultural fields using ALS inhibitor herbicides. Recent cases of herbicide resistance have been reported in France and are jeopardising the efficacy of this mode of action. Both target site resistance (TSR, structural mutation in ALS gene) and non target site resistance (NTSR, regulatory and/or structural mutations in secondary metabolism) are involved. The fundamental aim of this work was to identify the genetic determinisms of resistance to ALS inhibitors that have evolved in common ragweed populations in France. As an applied objective, this work also aimed to prepare the development of a high-throughput molecular diagnostic tool that would ensure a rapid detection of resistance. We first assessed the situation of common ragweed resistance in France and identified the mechanisms involved and their modalities of evolution. Using herbicide sensitivity bioassays coupled with ALS gene sequencing, we showed that ragweed resistance to two active substances, imazamox and tribenuron, is emerging in France and is mainly due to NTSR mechanisms. The observed resistance patterns suggest that a diversity of NTSR mechanisms are evolving in France. Furthermore, we demonstrated that TSR evolved locally, through multiple and independent appearance of mutations in the ALS gene. Thanks to the innovative application of high-throughput sequencing for the diagnosis of TSR on a national scale, we identified several foci of TSR emergence, as well as an unsuspected diversity of mutations in the ALS gene. We then studied the genetic determinisms of NTSR. A transcriptomic approach (RNASeq) associated with an analysis of nucleotide polymorphisms was conducted, based on the hypothesis that genes and/or markers of NTSR differed by their expression level and/or by sequence polymorphisms between plants resistant or sensitive to ALS inhibitors. For the first time, this approach was conducted directly on field plant material, i.e. six populations with distinct geographical origins and/or resistance profiles. Constitutive expression differences between resistant and sensitive plants were identified, especially in genes from families known to be involved in herbicide metabolism (cytochromes P450, transferase enzymes, transporters, etc.), but also in genes that may be involved in regulatory cascades activated by the herbicide. Validation of their relative expression levels and their ability to predict NTSR was performed on a massive sampling of plants. Taken together, the results indicate that a very high diversity of mechanisms is involved in RNLC within and between populations, highlighting the highly polygenic nature of RNLC in ragweed. In addition, assessment of the early response of plants to herbicide application showed that genes involved in secondary plant metabolism are specifically induced by treatment in resistant plants from different populations. Finally, sequence variants potentially correlated with NTSR were identified. Their validity as resistance markers remains to be confirmed. The diversity of resistance mechanisms identified within each population renders the development of a molecular diagnosis tool complex. On the other hand, it opens exciting perspectives for the study of the evolutionary dynamics of the adaptation of an invasive species subjected to a particularly intense anthropogenic selection pressure.