SYDNEY, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A breakthrough DNA analysis technique is giving scientists a powerful new tool to combat invasive plants, Australia's Monash University said on Tuesday.

Researchers found the rapid adaptation of invasive plants is driven by their ability to gain and lose genes, known as "copy number variation," based on which a method has been developed to detect major genetic changes in centuries-old plant specimens.

These changes play a key role in how invasive species adapt so rapidly to new environments, according to researchers from Monash University and the University of Melbourne.

Focusing on ragweed, a noxious plant originally from North America that has spread aggressively across Europe and Australia, researchers uncovered consistent patterns of adaptation between native and invasive populations, dating back to samples from the 1830s.

Lead researcher Jonathan Wilson said the findings indicate that invasive plants tend to rely on the same genetic strategies to adapt to similar environmental challenges in new regions.

The research also identified the gain or loss of the gene targeted by the herbicide glyphosate, which could be critical in addressing growing herbicide resistance, according to Wilson who undertook the research while completing his PhD at Monash University, and is now a research fellow at the University of Melbourne.

"In the case of ragweed in particular, it is already a major contributor to hay fever in Europe, and we hope this research will help control the weed before it becomes a big problem in Australia," Wilson said. Enditem

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