biorxiv preprints
N Johnson* and RS Baucom. Building a barrier: Investigating the defensive role of induced trichome production in herbicide exposed plants. In Revision. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.16.567395
SGD Bishop*, JR Stinchcombe, and RS Baucom. A resurrection experiment reveals reduced adaptive potential in a common agricultural weed. In Review. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.03.657543v2
SE Johnson, E Lancaster, JL Rifkin, SI Wright, and RS Baucom*. Color, size, shape: The drivers of floral variation in Hesperis matronalis (Dame’s Rocket). In Review. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.10.16.682931
G Zhang* and RS Baucom. Context dependence shapes the evolution of glyphosate and herbivory resistance in Ipomoea purpurea. In Review. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.20.695696
2025
RS Baucom, V Iriart, A Soble, M Armstrong, and T-L Ashman. Off-target drift of the herbicide dicamba disrupts plant-pollinator interactions via novel pathways. New Phytologist. 247: 850-862. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.20438
Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.20.599889
- Dicamba drift: New use of an old herbicide disrupts pollinators
- The effects of herbicide drift on plant-pollinator interactions
- Out of site, out of mind? Considering pesticide drift and plant mutualisms
G Zhang* and RS Baucom. 2025. Herbicidal interference: glyphosate drives both the ecology and evolution of plant-herbivore interactions. New Phytologist. 245: 807-817, https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.20238. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.05.597659
2024
RS Baucom. 2024. Engaging the public in the science of evolution. Evolution. 78(2): 378-379. doi: doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpad219
N Johnson* and RS Baucom. 2024. The double life of trichomes: understanding their dual role in herbivory and herbicide resistance. Evolution. 78(6): 1121-1132, https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpae048, Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.28.538721
2023
N Johnson*, G Zhang, A Soble, and RS Baucom. 2023. Dicamba drift alters patterns of chewing herbivory in three common agricultural weeds. In Revision. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.21.504705
SGD Bishop*, S-M Chang, and RS Baucom. 2023. Not just flowering time: A resurrection approach shows floral attraction traits are changing over time. Evolution Letters. 7(2): 88-98, https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrad006
Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.18.504321
N Johnson, S Johnson, G Zhang, A Soble, and RS Baucom*. 2023. The consequences of synthetic auxin herbicide on plant-herbivore interactions. Accepted, Trends in Plant Science. Manuscript available via EcoEvoRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.32942/X2KW2M and available online: https://www.cell.com/trends/plant-science/fulltext/S1360-1385(23)00050-X
S Gupta*, A Harkess, A Soble, ML Van Etten, J Leebens-Mack, RS Baucom. 2023. Inter-chromosomal linkage disequilibrium and linked fitness cost loci associated with selection for herbicide resistance. New Phytologist. 238(3): 1263-1277. doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18782. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.04.438381
2022
V Iriart, RS Baucom, and T-L Ashman. 2022. Interspecific variation in resistance and tolerance to herbicide drift has consequences for co-flowering interactions and community structure. Annals of Botany. 130(7): 1015-1028. doi: doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcac137
N Johnson and RS Baucom. 2022. Dicamba drift alters plant-herbivore interactions at the agro-ecological interface. Ecosphere. 13(11): e4274. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4274
Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.13.452219
2021
RS Baucom, V Iriart, JM Kreiner, and S Yakimowski. 2021. Resistance evolution, from genetic mechanism to ecological context. Molecular Ecology. 30: 5299-5302. Introduction to the resistance evolution special feature, led by RS Baucom. doi: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.16224
EB Josephs, ML Van Etten, A Harkess, A Platts, RS Baucom. 2021. Adaptive and maladaptive expression plasticity underlying herbicide resistance in an agricultural weed. Evolution Letters. 5-4: 432–440. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/evl3.241
ML Van Etten, AS Soble, and RS Baucom. 2021. Variable inbreeding depression may explain associations between the mating system and herbicide resistance. Molecular Ecology. In Press – Resistance evolution special feature. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.25.313940v1 or via https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mec.15852
E Marden, RJ Abbott, F Austerlitz, D Ortiz-Barrientos, RS Baucom, P Bongaerts, A Bonin, C Bonneaud, L Browne, CA Buerkle, AL Caicedo, MB Cruzan, A Davison, JA DeWoody, AJ Dumbrell, BC Emerson, NM Fountain-Jones, R Gillespie, T Giraud, MM Hansen, KA Hodgins, M Heuertz, S Hirase, R Hooper, P Hohenlohe, NC Kane, JL Kelley, AP Kinziger, VJ McKenzie, CS Moreau, AG Nazareno, TA Pelletier, JM Pemberton, Y Qu, S Renaut, C Riginos, N Rodríguez-Ezpeleta, SM Rogers, JA Russell, SD Schoville, S Shi, M Smith, VL Sork, GN Stone, P Taberlet, E Videvall, L Waits, E Warschefsky, RK Wayne, A Whibley, J Willoughby, JB.Yoder, L Zinger, B Sibbett, S Narum, LH Rieseberg. 2021. Sharing and reporting benefits from biodiversity research. Molecular Ecology. 30: 1103– 1107. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15702.
CA Rushworth, RS Baucom, BK Blackman, M Neiman, ME Orive, A Sethuraman, J Ware, and DR Matute. 2021. Who are we now? A demographic assessment of the evolution societies. Evolution. 75: 208-218. https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.14168.
SM Colom* and RS Baucom. 2021. Belowground competition favors character convergence but not character displacement in root traits. New Phytologist. 229: 3195-3207. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17100.
V Iriart, RS Baucom, and T-L Ashman. 2021. Herbicides as anthropogenic drivers of eco‐evo feedbacks in plant communities at the agro‐ecological interface. Molecular Ecology. 00:1–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15510.
2020
RS Baucom, KD Heath, and SM Chambers. 2020. Plant–environment interactions from the lens of plant stress, reproduction, and mutualisms. The American Journal of Botany. 107(2): 175– 178. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1437. Introduction for the “Plant-Environment Interactions: Integrating Across Levels and Scales” cross-journal special feature.
L Chaney* and RS Baucom. 2020. The soil microbial community alters patterns of selection on plant growth and fitness related traits. The American Journal of Botany. 107(2):186-194. Special Issue associated with the “Plant-Environment Interactions: Integrating Across Levels and Scales” symposium. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1426. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/67269.
ML Van Etten, S-M Chang, KL Lee, and RS Baucom. 2020. Parallel and nonparallel genomic responses contribute to herbicide resistance in Ipomoea purpurea, a common agricultural weed. PLOS Genetics 16: e1008593. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008593. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/647164.
SM Colom* and RS Baucom. 2020. Belowground competition can influence the evolution of root traits. The American Naturalist 195: 577-590. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/707597. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/553115
S Gupta*, DM Rosenthal, JR Stinchcombe, and RS Baucom. 2020. The remarkable morphological diversity of leaf shape in sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas): the influence of genetics, environment, and G×E. New Phytologist 225: 2183-2195. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16286. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/520650
2019
One Thousand Plants Initiative. 2019. One thousand plant transcriptomes and the phylogenomics of green plants. Nature 574: 679–685.
RS Baucom and R Busi. 2019. Evolutionary epidemiology in the field: integrating the principles of evolution to predict herbicide resistance in blackgrass, a problematic crop weed. New Phytologist, 223: 1056-1058. doi:10.1111/nph.15959 Invited Commentary
RS Baucom, AM Geraldes, LH Rieseberg. 2019. Some perspective on Molecular Ecology perspectives: Are women being left out? Molecular Ecology 28: 2451-2455. doi:10.1111/mec.15063. Reviewed Editorial
RS Baucom. 2019. Evolutionary and ecological insights from herbicide-resistant weeds: what have we learned about plant adaptation, and what is left to uncover? New Phytologist, 223: 68-82. doi:10.1111/nph.15723
DS Alvarado-Serrano, ML Van Etten, S-M Chang, and RS Baucom. 2019. The relative contribution of natural landscapes and human-mediated factors on the connectivity of a noxious invasive weed. Heredity 122:29-40.
Podcast about this work here, featuring first author Diego Alvarado-Serrano.
2018
DS Alvarado-Serrano, S-M Chang, and RS Baucom. 2018. Natural and anthropogenic influences on the mating system of the common morning glory. Journal of Heredity 109(2): 126-137. Special Issue associated with the “Genomics of Adaptation to Human Contexts” symposium
J Vandermeer, A Aniket, J Allgeier, C Badgley, RS Baucom, J Blesh, LF Shapiro, AD Jones, L Hoey, M Jain, I Perfecto, ML Wilson. 2018. Feeding Prometheus: an interdisciplinary approach for solving the global food crisis. Frontiers in Sustainable Agriculture 2: Article 39.
P Neve, J Barney, Y Buckley, R Cousens, S Graham, NR Jordan, A Lawton-Rauh, M Liebman, M Mesgaran, M Shut, J Shaw, J Storkey, B Baraibar, RS Baucom, M Chalak, D Child, S Christensen, H Eizenberg, C Fernández-Quintanilla, K French, M Harsch, S Heijting, L Harrison, D Ioddo, M Macel, R Maczey, A Merotto Jr., D Mortensen, J Necajeva, D Peltzer, J Recasens, M Renton, M Riemens, M Sønderskov, M Williams. 2018. Research priorities in weed ecology, evolution and management: A horizon scan. Weed Research 58, 250–258.
2017
A Stahl, RS Baucom, T Cook, E Bushbeck. 2017. A complex lens for a complex eye. Integrative and Comparative Biology 57(5): 1071–1081.
M Van Etten, S-M Chang, JK Conner, and RS Baucom. 2017. Not all weeds are created equal: a database approach uncovers differences in the sexual system of native and introduced weeds. Ecology and Evolution 7(8): 2636-2642.
Links to popular pieces about this work:
1. Different ways to have sex, yet still be a weed
A Kuester, E Fall, S-M Chang, and RS Baucom. 2017. Shifts in outcrossing rates and changes to floral traits are associated with the evolution of herbicide resistance in the common morning glory. Ecology Letters 20: 41-49. BioRxiv.
- Humans, selection, evolution and ecological timescales … a potent cocktail
- Shifts in mating strategies help superweeds persist
- Herbicide resistance: Self-preservation
2016
M Van Etten, A Kuester, S-M Chang, and RS Baucom. 2016. Fitness costs of herbicide resistance across natural populations of the common morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea. Evolution:70 (10): 2199–2210. BioRxiv.
A Kuester, A. Wilson, S-M Chang, and RS Baucom. 2016. A resurrection experiment finds evidence of both reduced genetic diversity and adaptive evolution in the agricultural weed Ipomoea purpurea. Molecular Ecology 25: 4508–4520. (See accompanying News and Views perspective “A harvest of weeds yields insight into a case of contemporary evolution“).
RS Baucom. 2016. The remarkable repeated evolution of herbicide resistance. On the Nature of Things, American Journal of Botany: 103 (2): 1-3.
2015
C Debban, S Matthews, L Elliot, K Pieper, A Wilson, and RS Baucom. 2015. An examination of fitness costs of glyphosate resistance in the common morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea. Ecology and Evolution 5: 5284-5294.
A Kuester, S-M Chang, and RS Baucom. 2015. The geographic mosaic of herbicide resistance evolution: Evidence for resistance hotspots and low genetic differentiation across the landscape. Evolutionary Applications 8: 821-833.
2014
NJ Wickett, S Mirarab, N Nguyen, T Warnow, E Carpenter, N Matasci, S Ayyampalayam..et al..G K-S Wong and J Leebens-Mack. 2014. A phylotranscriptomics analysis of the origin and early diversification of land plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111(45): E4859-E4868. Link to early access
N Matasci, L-H Hung, Z Yan, EJ Carpenter, NJ Wickett..et al..G K-S Wong and J Leebens-Mack. 2014. Data access for the 1000 plants(1kp) pilot.* GigaScience 3:17 Link to early access
T Leslie and RS Baucom. 2014. De novo assembly and annotation of the transcriptome of the agricultural weed Ipomoea purpurea uncovers gene expression changes associated with herbicide resistance. G3: Genes, Genomes, GeneticsAccepted, pdf
L Chaney and RS Baucom. 2014. The costs and benefits of tolerance to competition in Ipomoea purpurea, the common morning glory. Evolution 68: 1698-1709. data
A Kuester, JK Conner, T Culley, and RS Baucom. 2014. How weeds emerge: a taxonomic and trait-based examination using United States data. New Phytologist 202: 1055-1068.
2013
M Meriweather, S Matthews, R Rio, and RS Baucom. 2013. A 454 survey reveals the community composition and core microbiome of the common bed bug (Cimex lectularius) across an urban landscape. PLoS ONE. pdf. link to data
2012
A Kuester, B Foltz, G Lor, S-M Chang, JL Bennetzen, and RS Baucom. 2012. Development and characterization of simple sequence repeat loci for the common morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea (Convolvulaceae). Molecular Ecology Resources, 13(2): 341-343. pdf
L Chaney and RS Baucom. 2012. The evolutionary potential of Baker’s weediness traits in the common morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea. American Journal of Botany 99:1524-1530. doi:10.3732/ajb.1200096 pdf
2011
RS Baucom, S-M Chang, JM Kniskern, MD Rausher, and JR Stinchcombe. 2011. Morning glory as a powerful model in ecological genomics: tracing adaptation through both natural and artifical selection. Heredity 107: 377-385. pdf
RS Baucom and J deRoode. 2011. Ecological immunology and tolerance in plants and animals. Functional Ecology, in press. DOI: 10.111/j.1365-2435.2010.01742.x pdf
2010
RS Baucom and R Mauricio. 2010. Defense to the herbicide RoundUp predates its wide spread use. Evolutionary Ecology Research 12(1): 131-141. pdf
2009
RS Baucom and JS Holt. 2009. Weeds of agricultural importance: Bridging the gap between evolutionary biology and crop and weed science. New Phytologist 184(4): 741-743. pdf
RS Baucom, JC Estill, C Chapparro, N Upshaw, A Jogi, JM Deragon, RP Westerman, PJ SanMiguel, JL Bennetzen. 2009. Exceptional diversity, non-random distribution and rapid evolution of retroelements in the B73 maize genome. PLOS Genetics 5(11): e1000732. pdf
PS Schnable & The Maize Genome Sequencing Consortium (RS Baucom, 1 of 186 authors). 2009. The B73 maize genome: complexity, diversity and dynamics. Science326(5956): 1112-1115. pdf
F Wei, J Stein, C Liang, J Zhang, RS Fulton, RS Baucom, E DePaoli, S Zhou, L Yang, Y Han, S Pasternak, A Narechania, L Zhang, C-T Yeh, K Ying, DH Nagel, K Collura, D Kudrna, J Currie, J Lin, H Kim, A Angelove, G Scara, M Wissotski, W Golser, L Courtney, S Kruchowski, T Graves, S Rock, S Adams, L Fulton, C Fronick, W Courtney, M Kramer, L Spiegel, L Nascimento, A Kalyanaraman, C Chaparro, J-M Deragon, P SanMiguel, N Jiang, SR Wessler, PJ Green, Y Yu, DC Schwartz, BC Meyers, JL Bennetzen, R Matienssen, WR McCombie, S Aluru, SW Clifton, PS Schnable, D Ware, RK Wilson, RA Wing. 2009. Detailed analysis of a contiguous 22-MB region of the maize genome. PLOS Genetics 5(11): e1000728. pdf
RS Baucom, JC Estill, J Leebans-Mack and JL Bennetzen. 2009. Natural selection on gene function drives the evolution of LTR retrotransposon families in the rice genome.Genome Research 19(2): 243-254. pdf
RS Baucom. 2009. An herbicide defense trait that is distinct from resistance: The evolutionary ecology and genomics of herbicide tolerance. Book chapter, Weedy and Invasive Plant Genomics. Edited by CN Stewart Jr., Blackwell Publishing. DOI: 10.1002/9780813806198.
2008 and prior
RS Baucom and R Mauricio. 2008. Constraints on the evolution of tolerance to herbicide in the common morning glory: Resistance and tolerance are mutually exclusive. Evolution62(11): 2842-2854. pdf
RS Baucom, R Mauricio and S-M Chang. 2008. Glyphosate induces transient male sterility in Ipomoea purpurea. Botany 86(6): 587-594. pdf
RS Baucom and R Mauricio. 2008. The evolution of novel herbicide tolerance in a noxious weed: the geographic mosaic of selection. Evolutionary Ecology 22: 85-101. link to pdf
RS Baucom, JC Estill and MB Cruzan. 2005. The effect of deforestation on the genetic diversity and structure in Acer saccharum (Marsh): Evidence for the loss and restructuring of genetic variation in a natural system. Conservation Genetics 6: 39-50. pdf
RS Baucom and R Mauricio. 2004. Fitness costs and benefits of novel herbicide tolerance in a noxious weed. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101(36): 13386-13390. pdf
Morris, AB, RS Baucom and MB Cruzan. 2002. Stratified analysis of the soil seed bank in the cedar glade endemic, Astragalus bibullatus: Evidence for historical changes in genetic structure. American Journal of Botany 89(1): 29-36. pdf
The Baucom Lab 