Are u talking about plant species or animal species? I am not a molecular biologist, but I feel a prolonged exposure to new environment followed by hybridization with local species/variants may affect the gene sequence. I hear that certain cereals brought from US to India lose their production after a few years.

Dear Dr. Sankhyan

Thanks for your reply. I am talking about pine species in particular. Do you feel 40-50 years is enough when the species attains reproductive maturity after 30 years?

Dr Bhattacharyya,

It could be possibly the flora in that one area is different from the flora in the other. Therefore, in one place, the native flora could be more competitive to the Pine tree, preventing it from becoming invasive, whilst in the other area, the native flora is less competitive and this enables the Pine species to become invasive.

Presence or absence of competition usually determines if an exotic plant could be invasive or not.

Concerning your question, 'Punctual reduction in genome size could cause rapid changes in key phenotypic traits that enhance invasive ability' (Lavergne et al., 2010).

Dear Ravi,

I appreciate your answer. Thanks for the paper. Hope it would be able to throw some more light on my question.

Regards