Notes

The advantages of genetically modified crops over weeds

Herbicide resistance might provide advantages to plants in the wild.

Credit goes to Xiao Yang
The use of genetic modification of crops to make them resistant to herbicides is widely used to produce advantages for the varieties of rice that are weedy. ラウンドアップ This finding suggests that these modifications may be detrimental to the environment beyond farms.

A variety of crops are genetically altered in order to ward off the glyphosate. This herbicide was first offered under the trade name Roundup. This allows farmers to eliminate most herbicides from their fields, without causing harm to their crops.

Glyphosate can inhibit plant growth by blocking EPSP synase which is an enzyme involved in the production amino acids as well as other chemicals which comprise around 35% of plants' mass. The genetic-modification method, used in 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 are often derived from bacteria that has affected the plants.

This additional EPSP synthase enables plants to resist the effects from glyphosate. Biotechnology laboratories are attempting to utilize genes from plants instead of bacteria to boost EPSP synthase. ラウンドアップ This is partly because the US law allows for approval by the regulatory authorities to allow organisms with transgenes to be recognized as acceptable.

https://search.rakuten.co.jp/search/mall/ラウンドアップ/ A few studies have explored the possibility that transgenes similar to those that confer resistance to glyphosate increase the competitiveness of plants in reproduction and survival once they're introduced to wild or weedy cousins through cross-pollination. "The conventional belief is that any sort of transgene could cause disadvantage in the wild in absence of selection pressure, because the extra machinery would decrease the fitness of the plant," says Norman Ellstrand who is a plant geneticist at the University of California in Riverside.

A new study, led by Lu Baorong, an ecologist from Fudan University in Shanghai, is challenging that notion: it shows that a weedy version of the popular rice crop, Oryza sativa has an impressive fitness boost due to glyphosate resistance, even when glyphosate is not used.

Lu and his colleagues modified cultivated rice varieties to increase the production of EPSP synthase. They also crossed the modified rice with a weedy related. Their work was published in NewPhytologist 1.

The group then allowed the offspring of cross-breeding to cross-breed to produce second-generation hybrids. ラウンドアップ They were genetically identical with the exception of the amount of EPSP synthase genes they had. Like one might expect, the higher number of copies produced higher levels of enzyme and more tryptophan than their unmodified counterparts.

ラウンドアップ Researchers also discovered that transgenics have higher rates of flowering, more flowers and 48 to 125 percent more seeds per plant than nontransgenics.

ラウンドアップ Lu believes that making weedy rice less competitive can make it more difficult for farmers who have their plots affected by pests.

Brian Ford Lloyd, a UK plant scientist, stated that the EPSP Synthase gene could get into wild rice species. This would erode the genetic diversity of their species, which is extremely important. "This is one the most obvious instances of extremely plausible negative effects of GM crops] upon the natural environment."

ラウンドアップ There is a popular belief that genetically engineered plants with more copies or microorganisms' genes are less risky than those containing only the genes of their owners. "Our study shows that this is not necessarily the case" says Lu.

Researchers say this discovery calls for a rethinking the future regulation on the use of genetically modified plants. "Some people are now saying that biosafety regulations can be eased because we've reached an extremely high level of satisfaction with the two years of genetic engineering" Ellstrand says. The study does not prove that novel products are safe.


Website: https://www.nissanchem.co.jp/news_release/news/n2020_01_23.pdf