PLoS GenetplosplosgenPLoS Genetics1553-7404Public Library of ScienceSan Francisco, USA10.1371/image.pgen.v14.i02Issue ImageResearch and analysis methodsExperimental organism systemsModel organismsArabidopsis thalianaResearch and analysis methodsModel organismsArabidopsis thalianaBiology and life sciencesOrganismsEukaryotaPlantsBrassicaArabidopsis thalianaResearch and analysis methodsExperimental organism systemsPlant and algal modelsArabidopsis thalianaBiology and life sciencesEvolutionary biologyEvolutionary processesEvolutionary rateBiology and life sciencesPlant sciencePlant anatomySeedsScience policyScience and technology workforceCareers in researchScientistsPeople and placesPopulation groupingsProfessionsScientistsBiology and life sciencesComputational biologyGenome evolutionBiology and life sciencesGeneticsGenomicsGenome evolutionBiology and life sciencesEvolutionary biologyMolecular evolutionGenome evolutionBiology and life sciencesGeneticsGenomicsPlant genomicsBiology and life sciencesBiotechnologyPlant biotechnologyPlant genomicsBiology and life sciencesPlant sciencePlant biotechnologyPlant genomicsBiology and life sciencesGeneticsPlant geneticsPlant genomicsBiology and life sciencesPlant sciencePlant geneticsPlant genomicsBiology and life sciencesEvolutionary biologyEvolutionary geneticsPLoS Genetics Issue Image | Vol. 14(2) February 2018Issue Image220182822018142ev14.i022018Moises Exposito-AlonsoThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.<bold>Measuring the rate of evolution in hitchhiking <italic>Arabidopsis thaliana</italic></bold>

Despite its modest appearance and small size, Arabidopsis thaliana has proven to be a successful colonizer. It is found today over much of the United States since its arrival only a few hundred years ago. The species thrives in wild, rural as well as urban settings, and the photo shows an A. thaliana plant thriving in the cracks of a sidewalk. Our study suggests that about four hundred years ago, A. thaliana seeds from a single plant were unknowingly being carried by Europeans to the Eastern US. Who would have guessed that several centuries later, scientists would take advantage of its North American exile, and of pressed plants collected by botanists over the years, to calculate its genomic mutation rate, that is, the speed at which it evolved in the New World? See Exposito-Alonso, Becker et al.

Download February's cover page.

Image Credit: Moises Exposito-Alonso

<fig id="image-pgen-v14-i02-g001"><object-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1371/image.pgen.v14.i02.g001</object-id><caption><title><bold>Measuring the rate of evolution in hitchhiking <italic>Arabidopsis thaliana</italic></bold>

Despite its modest appearance and small size, Arabidopsis thaliana has proven to be a successful colonizer. It is found today over much of the United States since its arrival only a few hundred years ago. The species thrives in wild, rural as well as urban settings, and the photo shows an A. thaliana plant thriving in the cracks of a sidewalk. Our study suggests that about four hundred years ago, A. thaliana seeds from a single plant were unknowingly being carried by Europeans to the Eastern US. Who would have guessed that several centuries later, scientists would take advantage of its North American exile, and of pressed plants collected by botanists over the years, to calculate its genomic mutation rate, that is, the speed at which it evolved in the New World? See Exposito-Alonso, Becker et al.

Download February's cover page.

Image Credit: Moises Exposito-Alonso

2018Moises Exposito-AlonsoThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.