Notes

Genetically modified crops are more efficient than herbicides

In the wild, plants can be given resistance to herbicides.

Credit: Xiao Yang
It has been proven that a genetic modification technique is extensively used to make crops herbicide-resistant, gives advantages to the rice that is weedy. The results suggest that the effects of such modifications could extend beyond farms and out into the wild.

ラウンドアップ of crops has been genetically modified so that they are immune to Roundup herbicide glyphosate. ラウンドアップ can eliminate the majority of herbicides from their fields using this glyphosate resistance , without causing damage to their crops.

Glyphosate slows the growth of plants by blocking an enzyme known as EPSP synthase. It is involved in the production of certain amino acids and other molecules that account for as much as 35% of a plant's mass. Genetic modification, for instance, the Roundup Ready crops manufactured by Monsanto in St. ラウンドアップ , Missouri, involves inserting genes into a plant's genetic code to boost EPSP production. Genes are typically derived usually from bacteria that cause disease to plants.

The plant is able to resist the adverse effects of glyphosate due to the extra EPSP synthase. Biotechnology labs have tried using genes from plants to boost EPSP synthase production. This was done in part to take advantage of a loophole in US law that allows regulatory approval for transgenes in organisms which have not come from bacteria pests.

A few studies have looked into the possibility that transgenes like glyphosate-resistant genes could -- after introduction to wild or weedy plants by cross-pollination -- increase the competitiveness of these plants in survival, reproduction and growth. "The conventional belief is that any transgene will confer disadvantage in the wild in absence of any selection pressure because the extra machinery would reduce 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 rewritten that view. He discovered that glyphosate resistance gives an impressive fitness boost to a weedy version of the common rice crop Oryza sativa.

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

The researchers then allowed offspring that were cross-bred to breed with one another, resulting in second generation hybrids which are genetically similar to their parents, except the number of duplicates of the gene that codes for EPSP synthase. The researchers found that the hybrids that had more than one copy 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 plants with transgenic genes showed higher rates of photosynthesis and produced more flowers and produced 48 to 125 percent fewer seeds per plant than nontransgenic hybrids. This was despite the fact that glyphosate wasn't present.

https://www.matsukiyo.co.jp/store/online/p/4957919634979 says that making weedy grains more competitive could create more difficulties to farmers all over the world who have crops affected by the pest.

Brian Ford-Lloyd (a UK plant geneticist) says that if the EPSP-synthase genes gets into wild rice, then their genetic diversity that is vital to preserve could be endangered. The transgene will outcompete natural species. "This is one of the most clear examples of extremely plausible damaging impacts of GM crops on the environment."

The study also challenges the perception that genetically modified plants with extra copies of their genes are less risky than those that contain microorganisms' genes. Lu says that "our study does not prove that this is the case."

Researchers say these findings should prompt a rethinking of how genetically modified crops will be controlled in the near future. " ラウンドアップ are now suggesting that biosafety regulation can be relaxed because we have a high level of comfort in the last two years of genetic engineering" Ellstrand says. "But, the study showed that novel products still require careful evaluation."


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