Notes

Genetically modified crops have advantages over weeds

Wild plants may be resistant to herbicides.

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

ラウンドアップ of crops are created genetically to be resistant to the glyphosate. ラウンドアップ , originally known as Roundup it was released on the market in the year 1996 under the trade name Roundup. This resistance to glyphosate allows farmers to eradicate the majority of weeds from the fields without damaging their crops.

Glyphosate hinders growth of plants by blocking an enzyme referred to as EPSP synthase. This enzyme is involved in the creation of specific amino acids and other molecules that comprise approximately 35% of the plant's mass. ラウンドアップ of genetic modification employed by Monsanto's Roundup Ready crops, which are located in St Louis (Missouri), generally involves inserting genes into the DNA of the crop to increase EPSP synthase production. Genes are typically derived from bacteria that infects crops.

https://flights-ag.com/blog/herbicide/84/ can resist the adverse effects of glyphosate because it has an extra EPSP-synthase. Biotechnology labs have also tried to utilize plants' genes instead of bacteria to increase EPSP-synthase levels partly to make use of the loophole that is in US law that allows approval by regulators of organisms that have transgenes that aren't derived from bacterial pests.

A few studies have explored whether transgenes that confer glyphosate resistant can increase the competitiveness of plants in reproduction and survival once they are introduced to wild or weedy relatives through cross-pollination. "The traditional expectation is that any transgene can cause disadvantages in the wild in absence of selection pressure, because the additional machinery could lower the fitness," says Norman Ellstrand, a plant geneticist at the University of California in Riverside.

Lu Baorong, an ecologist from Fudan University in Shanghai has revised that opinion. He found that glyphosate resistance gives significant fitness benefits to the weedy variant of the standard rice plant Oryza sativa.

The study was published in 1. Lu and his coworkers have genetically modified rice to boost its EPSP synthase expression and crossed it with a weedy relative.

The group then allowed cross-bred offspring to breed with each other, resulting in second-generation hybrids genetically identical apart from the amount of copies of the gene encoding EPSP synthase. As one would expect, the higher number of copies produced higher levels of enzyme and more tryptophan than their counterparts that were not modified.

Researchers also discovered that transgenics had higher rates, more flowers, and 48 to 125 percent more seeds per plant than nontransgenics.

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

"If the EPSP-synthase gene is introduced into the wild rice species, their genetic diversity, which is important to conserve is at risk because the transgene's genetic make-up would outcompete the normal species," says Brian Ford-Lloyd who is a plant geneticist at the University of Birmingham, UK. This is one of the most clear examples of plausible harmful effects [of GM crop on the environment."

The public believes that genetically modified plants that have more replicas of their own genes than microorganisms are more safe. This notion is also challenged by the study. Lu states, "Our study shows this is not necessarily true."

Certain researchers believe that this finding needs to be reviewed in light of future regulation of crops that have been genetically modified. Ellstrand thinks that biosafety regulations can be relaxed since we are able to enjoy a high level satisfaction from the two decades of genetic engineering. "But https://www.nissanchem.co.jp/news_release/news/n2020_01_23.pdf proved that novel products still need to be evaluated with care."


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