Notes

Genetically modified crops offer advantages to the weeds

In the wild, resistance to herbicides could confer advantages to plants.

Weedy rice is able to absorb transgenes derived from genetically modified rice through cross-pollination. Credit: Xiao Yang
One of the most common methods used to make crops more resistant to herbicides was found to be superior over the weedy varieties of rice. This suggests that such genetic modification may also have potential to have an impact on wild animals.

Many cultivars are genetically altered so that they can resist the glyphosate. ラウンドアップ This herbicide was first offered under the trade name Roundup. Farmers can eliminate most weeds in their fields using glyphosate and not harm their crops because of this resistance.

Glyphosate can inhibit plant growth by blocking EPSP synase, an enzyme involved in the production amino acids and other chemicals that make up about 35% of plant mass. The genetic modification method employed for Roundup Ready crops by Monsanto (based in St Louis in Missouri) involves inserting genetic material into the crop to increase EPSP synthase's output. The genes typically come from bacteria that has caused the infection of plants.

This additional EPSP synthase permits plants to resist the effects from glyphosate. Biotechnology laboratories are attempting to make use of genes from plants rather than bacteria to increase EPSP synthase. ラウンドアップ ラウンドアップ 朝露 This is mainly due to the US law allows for approval by the regulatory authorities to allow organisms that have transgenes to be accepted.

Few studies have investigated the possibility that transgenes like glyphosate-resistant genes can -- once introduced to wild or weedy plants via cross-pollination enhance the competition of plants in survival, reproduction and growth. Norman Ellstrand of the University of California, Riverside, explained that the standard assumption was that any transgene will confer disadvantage in nature if there was no selection pressure. This is because extra machinery could reduce the effectiveness of.

Lu Baorong, an ecologist from Fudan University in Shanghai has changed the way that he views this. ラウンドアップ He discovered that glyphosate resistance gives significant fitness benefits to a weedy variant of the standard rice plant Oryza sativa.

Lu and coworkers modified the cultivars of rice to increase its EPSP synthase. The modified rice was then crossed with a wild-type relative.

The researchers then allowed cross-breeding offspring to be bred together to produce second-generation hybrids. These were genetically identical with the exception of the number and copy count of EPSP synthase gene. https://pesticide.maff.go.jp/agricultural-chemicals/details/14360 Like one might expect, more copies resulted in higher levels of enzyme, and also more tryptophan, than the unmodified counterparts.

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

Lu states that making the weedy grain more competitive could increase the difficulties it causes for farmers across the world whose crops are affected by the insect.

"If the EPSP-synthase gene is introduced in the wild rice plant, their genetic diversity, which is really vital to preserve may be at risk as the transgene's genetic make-up will outcompete the natural species" Brian Ford-Lloyd an expert in plant genetics at the University of Birmingham, UK. "This is one clear example of the extremely plausible detrimental consequences [of GM plantson our environment."

Many people believe that plants with genetically modified genes containing more replicas of their own genes than those from microorganisms are safer. ラウンドアップ This belief is not supported by this study. ラウンドアップ Lu states that "our study does not prove that this is true."

https://www.zennoh.or.jp/eigi/research/pdf/gr334_06.pdf Researchers have said that this discovery calls for a reconsideration of the regulation for genetically modified crops. Ellstrand claims that some people think that biosafety rules can be relaxed since we have over two years of genetic engineering. "But this study has shown that new products need to be evaluated with care."


Read More: https://pesticide.maff.go.jp/agricultural-chemicals/details/14360