Notes

Genetically modified plants are more efficient than the weeds

Wild plants may be capable of resisting herbicides.

Credit Xiao Yang
Genetic modification to create crops resistant to herbicides has been extensively utilized to provide advantages to weedy rice varieties. This indicates that these changes could affect the environment beyond farm.

Many crops are genetically altered in order to resist the glyphosate. The herbicide was initially sold under the tradename Roundup. Farmers can eradicate most herbicides from their fields using this glyphosate-resistant crop without damaging their crops.

Glyphosate is a plant-killer by blocking EPSP synase, an enzyme involved in the production amino acids and other chemicals that comprise about 35% of plant mass. Genetic modification, for instance, the Roundup Ready crops manufactured by Monsanto in St. Louis, Missouri, involves inserting genes into a plant's genetic code to increase EPSP production. Genes are typically derived from bacteria that infects the crops.

The plant can withstand the effects of glyphosate because of the addition of EPSP synthase. Biotechnology labs have also attempted to use plants' genes instead of bacteria to boost EPSP-synthase production and, in turn, to take advantage of the loophole within US law that permits the approval of regulatory agencies for organisms that carry transgenes that are not derived from bacterial pests.

ラウンドアップ There aren't many studies that have examined the possibility that transgenes like ones that confer resistance to glyphosate can -- once they get into weedy or wild relatives through cross-pollination -- make those plants more competitive for survival and reproduction. Norman Ellstrand, a University of California plant geneticist says that without selection pressure, any type of transgene would be expected to create disadvantages in wild plants. The added machinery will reduce fitness.

ラウンドアップ Lu Baorong, an ecologist from Fudan University in Shanghai has rewritten that view. He found that glyphosate resistance provides an impressive fitness boost to a weedy variant of the standard rice crop Oryza Sativa.

Their study was published in 1. Lu and his colleagues genetically modified cultivated rice to boost its EPSP synthase activity and crossed it with a weedy counterpart.

https://www.matsukiyo.co.jp/store/online/p/4957919634979 The team then allowed the breeding offspring from the cross to mix with one another, creating second-generation hybrids genetically identical to one another apart from the amount of copies of the gene that encodes EPSP synthase. As was expected, those with more copies had higher enzyme levels and produced an increased amount of amino acid tryptophan in comparison to the unmodified counterparts.

Researchers also discovered that transgenic hybrids were photogenic, had more seeds per plant and had 48-125 percent higher yields of seeds than non-transgenic varieties.

Lu believes that making weedy, invasive rice more competitive may make it more difficult for farmers to recoup the damage caused by this bug.

ラウンドアップ "If the EPSP-synthase gene gets in the wild rice species, their genetic diversity, which is essential to protect, could be threatened because the genotype with the transgene will outcompete the natural species" says Brian Ford-Lloyd an expert in plant genetics at the University of Birmingham, UK. "This is a prime example of the most likely and harmful impacts of GM crops on the environment."

The general public believes that genetically engineered plants with extra copies or microorganisms genes are safer than ones containing only their own genes. Lu states, "Our study shows this is not necessarily true."

Researchers have concluded that the findings call for an overhaul of how genetically modified plants will be controlled in the near future. Ellstrand claims that some people believe biosafety regulations can be relaxed since we have more than two years of genetic engineering. ラウンドアップ ラウンドアップ "But the research shows that new products require careful evaluation."

ラウンドアップ 原液
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