Harnessing historical collections to reconstruct the invasion history of Microstegium vimineum (Poaceae)

The evolutionary processes underlying successful invasions are often difficult to disentangle. Historical collections provide a temporal perspective, offering great potential to reconstruct invasion histories and identify the processes driving invasions. Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) is an invasive C4 grass introduced to eastern North America over a century ago and now established in 31 USA states. To reconstruct its invasion history, we leveraged low-coverage whole-genome sequencing of 142 herbarium and 330 contemporary samples spanning the temporal and spatial extent of the North American invasion and the native range in Asia. We identified three independent introductions in the USA: an awnless form in the South and two independent introductions of awned forms in the North, with limited admixture among introductions across space and time. In both regions, we observed high genetic diversity in the earliest available collections despite demographic bottlenecks and identified several putative selective sweeps in or near flowering-time genes, suggesting rapid evolution in the introduced range. Our analyses support separate invasions in the USA, likely facilitated by standing genetic variation and selection, but provide little support for admixture playing a major role. Our study highlights the power of historical collections to uncover the processes and mechanisms underlying successful biological invasions.