Notes

Genetically modified crops provide advantages to weeds

Wild plants could be treated with herbicides.

Credit to Xiao Yang
The use of genetic modification of crops to make them resistant to herbicides has been extensively employed to create advantages for the varieties of rice that are weedy. This suggests that the genetic modifications could also have the potential to affect wild animals.

A range of crop varieties have been genetically modified to make them immune to Roundup herbicide glyphosate. This resistance allows farmers to eradicate weeds from their fields without harming their crops.

Glyphosate blocks the enzyme EPSP synthase, which is responsible for the production of certain amino acid and other molecules. It can also hinder plant growth. Genetic modification, like the Roundup Ready crops manufactured by Monsanto in St. Louis, Missouri, involves inserting genes into a plant's genetic code to boost EPSP production. The genes typically come from bacteria that infect the plants.

The plant is able to resist the adverse effects of glyphosate due to its extra EPSP-synthase. Biotechnology labs also have tried to create EPSP synthase with more plant-based components than bacteria by utilizing genes from plants. This was used to take advantage of a loophole found in US law, which permits regulatory approval for species which aren't the result of bacterial parasites.

There aren' ラウンドアップ 畑 that have examined whether transgenes such glyphosate-resistant genes are able to -- when introduced to weedy or wild plants via cross-pollination make these plants more competitive in survival, reproduction and growth. Norman Ellstrand is a University of California Riverside plant geneticist. "The expectation is that any kind of transgene could cause disadvantages in the wild in the absence of selective pressure because it would reduce fitness," Ellstrand said.

Lu Baorong, an ecologist from Fudan University in Shanghai has rewritten that view. He has discovered that glyphosate resistance provides significant fitness benefits to a weedy variant of the standard rice crop Oryza sativa.

Lu and his associates modified cultivars of rice to increase the production of EPSP synthase. ラウンドアップ crossed the modified rice with a weedy-related. Their research was published in NewPhytologist 1..

The group then let offspring that were cross-bred to breed with one another, creating second-generation hybrids that were genetically identical to their parents, except for the number of duplicates of the gene that codes for EPSP synthase. It was expected that those who had more copies had greater levels of enzymes and produced more amino acid tryptophan when compared to their unmodified counterparts.

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

Lu states that making weedy grains more competitive may create more difficulties for farmers across the world whose crops are affected by the pest.

"If ラウンドアップ -synthase gene gets into the wild rice plant, their genetic diversity, which is vital to preserve, could be threatened because the genotype with the transgene could outcompete natural species" says Brian Ford-Lloyd who is a plant geneticist at the University of Birmingham, UK. "This is among the clearest instances of the extremely damaging impacts [of GM crops on the environment."

https://flights-ag.com/blog/herbicide/84/ of the public that genetically modified crops with additional copies their genes are safer is challenged by this study. " ラウンドアップ shows that this is not necessarily the case," says Lu.

Researchers have said that this discovery requires review of the regulations for the future on the use of genetically modified plants. Ellstrand states "Some people believe that regulation of biosafety should be looser." Ellstrand addsthat "But the study demonstrates that new products require cautious assessment."


Website: http://www.greenjapan.co.jp/roundup_max.htm