Notes

The advantages of genetically modified crops over the weeds

https://repo.getmonero.org/roundup66gmrk259 may confer an advantage on plants in the wild.

Credit: Xiao Yang
A common technique for the genetic modification of plants to make them herbicide resistant has been proven to provide advantages to weedy varieties of rice even when the herbicide is not present. These results suggest that such modifications could have a wide spectrum of effects that extend beyond farms and out into the wild.

There are ラウンドアップ of plants have been genetically altered to be resistive to glyphosate. Roundup was the first herbicide to be marketed. This resistance to glyphosate enables farmers to eradicate most plants without doing any harm to their crop.

Glyphosate is an inhibitor of plant growth. ラウンドアップ blocks an enzyme known EPSP synthase. ラウンドアップ plays a role in the production certain amino acids as well as other molecules. These substances can make up as much as 35% of a plant’s mass. The technique of genetic modification is employed, for example, in Roundup Ready plants made by Monsanto Biotechnology, a biotech company that is headquartered in St Louis, Missouri. It involves inserting genes into the genome of the crop to boost EPSP synthase-synthase-production. Genes are typically obtained from bacteria that infects crops.

The plant can resist the adverse effects of glyphosate due to its extra EPSP-synthase. Biotechnology labs are also looking to utilize genes that come from plants instead of bacteria to increase EPSP synthase. This is partly because the US law allows for regulatory approval that allows organisms with transgenes to be accepted.

A few studies have explored whether transgenes, such as those that confer resistance glyphosate, can increase the resilience of plants in survival and reproduction once they cross-pollinate with weedy or wild species. Norman Ellstrand, a University of California plant geneticist claims that, without selection pressure, any type of transgene would be expected to cause disadvantages in wild plants. The additional machinery could decrease fitness.

However, a new study conducted by Lu Baorong, an ecologist from Fudan University in Shanghai, disproves that belief: it shows that the weedy variant of the standard rice plant, Oryza sativa has an important boost in fitness due to the resistance to glyphosate even when glyphosate has not been used.

Lu and his coworkers modified the cultivars of rice to increase the production of EPSP synthase. They also crossed the modified rice with a weedy related. Their findings were published in NewPhytologist 1..

The group allowed the offspring from cross-breeding to breed with each other, creating second-generation hybrids that are genetically identical with each other except for the amount of copies of the gene encodes EPSP synase. As expected, the ones with more copies of the gene had higher enzyme levels and produced an increased amount of amino acid tryptophan in comparison to their unmodified counterparts.

Researchers also discovered that transgenic hybrids have higher rates of photosynthesis, produced more flowers and shoots and produced 48 to 125 percent more seeds than the non-transgenic hybridswith or without the chemical glyphosate.

Lu believes that making weedy invading rice more competitive might make it harder for farmers to recover from the harm caused by this insect.

Brian Ford-Lloyd (a UK plant geneticist) claims that if the EPSP-synthase genes gets into wild rice, then their genetic diversity, which is vital to preserve could be threatened. The transgene could surpass the normal species. "This is an example of the most likely and harmful effects of GM crops on the environment."

The public believes that plants with genetically modified genes containing more copies of their own genes than microorganisms are safe. This is not supported by this study. Lu declares, "Our study shows this is not necessarily true."

According to some research this finding suggests that the future regulation of genetically engineered crops should be reconsidered. https://rosalind.info/users/roundup33thup224 claims that "some people now believe that biosafety regulation could be relaxed since we have a an incredibly comfortable relationship with genetic engineering for two decades." "But the study demonstrates that novel products still need cautious evaluation."


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