Herbicide resistance may provide advantages to plants in the wild.
Weedy rice is able to absorb transgenes derived from genetically modified crops through cross-pollination. Credit: Xiao Yang
A technique of genetic modification widely used to create crops that are resistant to herbicides has been shown to give advantages to a weedy form of rice even in the absence of the herbicide. This suggests that this genetic modifications could also have the potential to have an impact on wild animals.
https://www.ikeda-green.com/item/gaichu-33/ of crop varieties have been modified genetically so that they become resistant to Roundup herbicide glyphosate. Farmers are able to eliminate the weeds that grow in their fields by using this glyphosate resistance without causing damage to their crops.
Glyphosate inhibits plant growth by blocking an enzyme referred to as EPSP synthase. This enzyme is responsible for the production of specific amino acids as well as other molecules that account for as much as 35% of the plant’s mass. The technique of genetic modification is employed, for example, in Roundup Ready plants made by Monsanto, a biotechnology company that is headquartered in St Louis, Missouri. It involves inserting genes into the genome of a crop to boost EPSP synthase-synthase-production. https://mujin-heri.jp/yakuzai/js-55.html are usually derived from bacteria that cause disease to the crops.
ラウンドアップ amazon allows the plant to withstand the effects from glyphosate. Biotechnology labs have also attempted to utilize the genes of plants to boost EPSP-synthase levels, in part to exploit an American loophole which permits the approval of regulatory authorities of transgenes that are not derived from bacteria-based pests.
A few studies have looked into whether transgenes that confer glyphosate tolerance can — once they are weedy or become wild relatives via cross-pollinating -enhance the plant’s survival and reproduction. “The common belief is that any sort of transgene will confer disadvantage in the wild in absence of pressure to select, due to the fact that any additional machinery will reduce the fitness,” says Norman Ellstrand who is a plant geneticist at the University of California in Riverside.
Lu Baorong, an ecologist from Fudan University in Shanghai has revised that opinion. He has discovered that glyphosate resistance provides a significant fitness lift to a weedy variant of the standard rice plant Oryza sativa.
The research was published in 1. ラウンドアップ and his collaborators have genetically modified rice to boost its EPSP synthase activity and crossed it with a weedy cousin.
The team permitted the offspring from cross-breeding to cross-breed with each other to create second generation hybrids. They were identical genetically with the exception of the amount of EPSP synthase genes they had. ラウンドアップ discovered that the ones who had greater than one copy of the gene encoding EPSP synthase had more enzyme expression and also produced more tryptophan which is what we expected.
The researchers also found that the hybrids with transgenic genes had higher rates of photosynthesis. They also produced more flowers and shoots and produced 48-125percent more seeds than the non-transgenic hybrids- in the absence of glyphosate.
Lu believes making weedy, invasive rice more competitive may make it harder for farmers to repair the damage caused by this pest.
“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 genotype would outcompete the normal species,” Brian Ford-Lloyd who is a plant geneticist at the University of Birmingham, UK. This is among the clearest examples of extremely likely negative effects of GM crop] on the environment.”
The study also challenges the belief that crops modified genetically that carry additional copies of their genes are safer than the ones that have the genes of microorganisms. “Our study proves that this isn’t always the case,” Lu says. Lu.
ラウンドアップ believe that this finding needs to be reviewed in light of future regulation of genetically modified crops. Ellstrand says “Some people believe that biosafety regulation should be eased.” Ellstrand says: “But the research shows that the new technologies require careful evaluation.”