Recently, the germplasm innovation team from China National Rice Research Institute (CNRRI) of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and Zhejiang University jointly published a review paper entitled Genomic clues for crop-weed interactions and evolution on Journal of Trends in Plant Science. In the paper, the progress of molecular mechanism of crop-weed interactions and evolution was summarized and the development of practical applications in agricultural weed control and crop breeding was furthered.

This paper reveals a complex evolutionary relationship between wild plants, crops and weeds. Crops are domesticated from wild plants. Many "grass" were turned into crops by our ancestors, even including some vicious weeds such as barnyard grass. Meanwhile, some crops involved into weeds which compete with crops. In recent years, genome-based research studies on agricultural weeds and crop–weed interactions reveal several major evolutionary innovations such as de-domestication, interactions mediated by allelochemical secondary metabolites, and parasitic genetic elements that play crucial roles in enhancing weed invasiveness in agricultural settings.