Notes

Genetically modified crops have more benefits than weeds

In the wild, plants can be given herbicide resistance.

Weedy rice can pick up transgenes from genetically modified crops by cross-pollinating. Credit: Xiao Yang
One of the most common methods employed to make crops resistant to herbicides was shown to offer advantages over rice varieties that are weedy. This suggests that such genetic modification may also have potential to affect wild animals.

A variety of plants are genetically engineered to be resistant to the glyphosate. The herbicide, initially called Roundup it was released to the market in 1996 under the trade name Roundup. Farmers can eradicate most the weeds that grow in their fields by using this glyphosate resistance , without causing damage to their crops.

Glyphosate prevents plant growth by stopping EPSP synthase (an enzyme that is involved in the creation of certain amino acids as well as various other molecules). https://www.zennoh.or.jp/eigi/research/pdf/gr334_06.pdf could be as large as 35% or more of a plant's total mass. The technique of genetic modification utilized, for instance in Roundup Ready crops made by the biotechnology giant Monsanto, based in St Louis, Missouri -generally includes inserting genes into a crop's genome to boost EPSP-synthase production. These genes usually come from bacteria that has affected plants.

The added EPSP synthase helps the plant withstand the effects of glyphosate. Biotechnology labs have tried using plant genes to boost EPSP synthase activity. This was partly to make use of a loophole that is in US law that permits the regulatory approval of transgenes contained in organisms that have not been derived from bacteria pests.

Few studies have looked into the possibility that transgenes, like those that confer resistance to the chemical glyphosate can increase the resilience of plants in their survival and reproduction after they cross-pollinate with wild or weedy species. Norman Ellstrand of the University of California, Riverside, stated that the conventional expectation was that any transgene will cause disadvantage in nature when there was no selection pressure. This is due to the fact that any additional machinery would lower the fitness.

Lu Baorong is an ecologist at Fudan University Shanghai. ラウンドアップ shows that glyphosate resistance provides a significant fitness benefit even when it's not applied.

Their research was published in 1. Lu and his collaborators have genetically modified rice to enhance its EPSP synthase activity and crossed it with a weedy cousin.

The group then let offspring to crossbreed with one another, creating second generation hybrids that are genetically similar to their parents with the exception for how many copies of the gene that encodes EPSP synthase. As ラウンドアップ would expect, hybrids that had more copies of the gene had a higher chance to make more tryptophan and have greater levels of enzymes than the unmodified hybrids.

Researchers also found that transgenic plants were more photosynthesis-intensive as well as produced more flowers and produced 48-125percent less seeds per plant than the nontransgenic hybrids. This was despite the fact that glyphosate was not present.

Making the weedy rice more competitive could exacerbate the problems it causes for farmers across the globe where plots are ravaged by pests, Lu says.

Brian Ford Lloyd, a UK plant scientist, stated that the EPSP Synthase gene could get in wild rice varieties. This would threaten the genetic diversity of their species, which is very vital. "This is an example of the most plausible and damaging negative effects of GM crops on the environment."

ラウンドアップ challenges the belief that crops modified genetically carrying extra copies of their genes are safer than those containing genes from microorganisms. Lu states that "our study does not prove this to be the case."

The finding calls for a rethinking of future regulation of genetically modified crops, some researchers suggest. Ellstrand claims that some people believe biosafety regulations can be relaxed given the past two years of genetic engineering. "But the study demonstrates that new products require cautious assessment."


Here's my website: https://www.zennoh.or.jp/eigi/research/pdf/gr334_06.pdf