Ecological Genomics of Yellow Starthistle Invasions

Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) is a Eurasian species that has become highly invadive in the Americas. We have been reconstructing its routes of invasion, identifying major transitions in the evolution of increased plant size during invasion, and uncovering a potentially important role for structural evolution of the genome (genome size, content, and gene order) in the evolution of highly invasive populations, particularly in California.