High‐impact biological invasions often involve establishment and spread in disturbed, high‐resource patches followed by establishment and spread in biotically or abiotically stressful areas. Evolutionary change may be required for the second phase of invasion (establishment and spread in stressful areas) to occur. When species have low genetic diversity and short selection history, within‐generation phenotypic plasticity is often cited as the mechanism through which spread across multiple habitat types can occur. We show that trans‐generational plasticity (TGP) can result in pre‐adapted progeny that exhibit traits associated with increased fitness both in high‐resource patches and in stressful conditions. In the invasive sedge,Cyperus esculentus, maternal plants growing in nutrient‐poor patches can place disproportional number of propagules into nutrient‐rich patches. Using the invasive annual grass,Aegilops triuncialis, we show that maternal response to soil conditions can confer greater stress tolerance in seedlings in the form of greater photosynthetic efficiency. We also show TGP for a phenological shift in a low resource environment that results in greater stress tolerance in progeny. These lines of evidence suggest that the maternal environment can have profound effects on offspring success and that TGP may play a significant role in some plant invasions.

4‐Coumarate:CoA ligase (4CL) is involved in the formation of coenzyme A thioesters of hydroxycinnamic acids that are central substrates for subsequent condensation, reduction, and transfer reactions in the biosynthesis of plant phenylpropanoids. Previous studies of 4CL appear to suggest that many isoenzymes are functionally equivalent in supplying substrates to various subsequent branches of phenylpropanoid biosyntheses. In contrast, divergent members of a 4CL gene family were identified in soybean (Glycine max L.). We isolated three structurally and functionally distinct 4CL cDNAs encoding 4CL1, 4CL2, and 4CL3 and the gene Gm4CL3. A fourth cDNA encoding 4CL4 had high similarity with 4CL3. The recombinant proteins expressed in Escherichia coli possessed highly divergent catalytic efficiency with various hydroxycinnamic acids. Remarkably, one isoenzyme (4CL1) was able to convert sinapate; thus the first cDNA encoding a 4CL that accepts highly substituted cinnamic acids is available for further studies on branches of phenylpropanoid metabolism that probably lead to the precursors of lignin. Surprisingly, the activity levels of the four isoenzymes and steady‐state levels of their transcripts were differently affected after elicitor treatment of soybean cell cultures with a β‐glucan elicitor of Phytophthora sojae, revealing the down‐regulation of 4CL1 vs. up‐regulation of 4CL3/4. A similar regulation of the transcript levels of the different 4CL isoforms was observed in soybean seedlings after infection with Phytophthora sojae zoospores. Thus, partitioning of cinnamic acid building units between phenylpropanoid branch pathways in soybean could be regulated at the level of catalytic specificity and the level of expression of the 4CL isoenzymes.

By applying second‐generation sequencing technologies to microsatellite genotyping, sequence information is produced which can result in high‐resolution population genetics analysis populations and increased replicability between runs and laboratories. In the present study, we establish an approach to study the genetic structure patterns of two European hedgehog species Erinaceaus europaeus and E. roumanicus. These species are usually associated with human settlements and are good models to study anthropogenic impacts on the genetic diversity of wild populations. The short sequence repeats genotyping by sequence (SSR‐GBS) method presented uses amplicon sequences to determine genotypes for which allelic variants can be defined according to both length and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). To evaluate whether complete sequence information improved genetic structure definition, we compared this information with datasets based solely on length information. We identified a total of 42 markers which were successfully amplified in both species. Overall, genotyping based on complete sequence information resulted in a higher number of alleles, as well as greater genetic diversity and differentiation between species. Additionally, the structure patterns were slightly clearer with a division between both species and some potential hybrids. There was some degree of genetic structure within species, although only in E. roumanicus was this related to geographical distance. The statistically significant results obtained by SSR‐GBS demonstrate that it is superior to electrophoresis‐based methods for SSR genotyping. Moreover, the greater reproducibility and throughput with lower effort which can be obtained with SSR‐GBS and the possibility to include degraded DNA into the analysis, allow for continued relevance of SSR markers during the genomic era.