Vavilovian Mimicry

CORE DEFINITION

Vavilovian mimicry (also known as crop mimicry or weed mimicry) is a form of plant mimicry in which weeds, through generations of artificial selection, acquire one or more traits that resemble those of a cultivated crop. This mimicry was discovered and named by the prominent Russian plant geneticist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov (founder of the theory of centers of origin of cultivated plants). Selection against weeds can occur during both the seedling and mature stages, and can also involve separating their seeds from crop seeds through winnowing, or both. Since the Neolithic era, this process could be done by hand, and in modern agriculture it can be mechanized. Vavilovian mimicry is an example of unintentional selection by humans. Humans may be aware of the impact of their selective factors on the gene pool, and this effect is detrimental to crop cultivation. Weeders do not want weeds to become increasingly similar to crops, but the alternative is to let weeds grow and compete with crops for sunlight and nutrients. Similar situations include antibiotic resistance or herbicide resistance, which are essentially analogous to Vavilovian mimicry. This effect can be countered by other artificial selection practices that are more beneficial to the outcome, such as selective breeding.