Notes

Genetically modified crops offer more benefits than herbicides

ラウンドアップ in the wild could be given herbicide resistance.

Credit Xiao Yang
The use of genetic modification to make crops resistant to herbicides is widely employed to create advantages for species of rice that are weedy. This finding suggests that these modifications may affect the natural environment beyond farms.

Many varieties of crops are genetically modified to be resistive to the glyphosate. Roundup was the first herbicide to be sold. ラウンドアップ -resistant crop allows farmers to eliminate the majority of weeds from the fields without damaging their crops.

Glyphosate inhibits plant growth through blocking an enzyme, known as EPSP synthase, which is involved in the creation of certain amino acids and other molecules that comprise about 35% of the plant's mass. ラウンドアップ that is employed by Monsanto's Roundup Ready crops, which are based in St Louis (Missouri), generally involves inserting genes into the DNA of a plant to boost EPSP synthase production. ラウンドアップ are typically derived usually from bacteria that infect plants.

The plant can withstand the effects of glyphosate because of the extra EPSP synthase. Biotechnology labs have also attempted to utilize genes from plants rather than bacteria to boost EPSP-synthase production and, in turn, to take advantage of the loophole in US law that allows regulatory approval of organisms carrying transgenes that aren't that are derived from bacteria.

A few studies have looked into whether transgenes such as those that confer glyphosate resistance could -- after they get into wild or weedy relatives by cross-pollination -- make those plants more competitive in survival and reproduction. "The conventional belief is that any sort of transgene could cause disadvantage in the wild, in the absence of selection pressure, because the extra machinery would decrease the fitness of the plant," says Norman Ellstrand an expert in plant genetics at the University of California in Riverside.

ラウンドアップ is an Ecologist in Fudan University Shanghai. His study shows that resistance to glyphosate provides a significant fitness benefit, even though it isn't applied.

Lu and his associates modified cultivars of rice to produce more EPSP synthase. They also crossed the modified rice with a weedy related. Their research was published in NewPhytologist 1..

The group then permitted the offspring from cross-breeding to cross-breed to create second generation hybrids. They were genetically identical except for the amount of EPSP synthase genes they had. The researchers found that the hybrids who had greater copies of the gene that encodes EPSP synthase expressed more enzyme and also produced more tryptophan in line with what was expected.

Researchers also found that transgenics had higher rates, more flowers, and 48-125% more seeds/plant than nontransgenics.

Lu believes that making weedy, invading rice more competitive might hinder farmers to repair the damage caused by this insect.

Brian Ford-Lloyd (a UK plant geneticist) says that if the EPSP-synthase gene is introduced into wild rice species, then their genetic diversity which is vital to preserve could be at risk. The transgene could surpass the regular species. "This is one of the clearest instances of the extremely damaging impacts of GM crops] on the environment."

https://search.rakuten.co.jp/search/mall/%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A6%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E3%82%A2%E3%83%83%E3%83%97/ of the public that genetically modified crops containing additional copies of their genes are safe is disproved by this research. Lu claims that the study doesn't support this view.

Researchers say this finding calls for review of the regulations for the future on genetically modified crops. Ellstrand believes that biosafety laws can be relaxed since we are able to have a great level of comfort from two decades worth of genetic engineering. This study isn't proof that new products are safe.


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