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The wild plants may have an herbicide resistance advantage.

Credit goes to Xiao Yang
A method of genetic modification used extensively to create crops that are resistant to herbicides has been shown to confer advantages on a weedy form of rice even in the absence of the herbicide. ラウンドアップ These findings suggest that these modifications could have a wide range of effects beyond the farms, and possibly in the wild.

A variety of crops have been genetically altered so that they can resist glyphosate. This herbicide was first sold under the tradename Roundup. Farmers can eliminate most herbicides from their fields by using glyphosate and not harm their crops by having this resistance.

ラウンドアップ Glyphosate can inhibit plant growth by inhibiting EPSP synase which is an enzyme that plays a role in the production amino acids and other chemicals which comprise around 35% of the plant's mass. The technique of genetic modification used, for instance, in Roundup Ready crops made by the biotech giant Monsanto which is headquartered in St Louis, Missouri -usually includes inserting genes into a plant's genome to increase the production of EPSP synthase. Genes are typically obtained from bacteria that cause disease to the crops.

ラウンドアップ The additional EPSP synthase lets the plant withstand the effects of glyphosate. Biotechnology labs have also attempted to make EPSP-synthase more plant-based than bacteria using genes from plants. ラウンドアップ This was made to make use of the loophole in US law that allows regulatory approval for organisms that are not derived from bacteria.

Few studies have tested the possibility that transgenes like those that confer resistance to glyphosate could — after they get into wild or weedy relatives via cross-pollination, make plants more competitive in terms of survival and reproduction. Norman Ellstrand of University of California Riverside says, "The conventional expectation is that any type of transgene that is found in nature will cause disadvantages if there is no selection pressure , because the extra machinery could reduce the fitness."

Lu Baorong, an ecologist from Fudan University in Shanghai has rewritten that view. ラウンドアップ al3 He discovered that glyphosate resistance provides an impressive fitness boost to the weedy version of the common rice crop Oryza Sativa.

Lu and colleagues modified cultivated rice species to enhance its EPSP synthase. https://www.komeri.com/disp/CKmSfGoodsPageMain_001.jsp?GOODS_NO=1713321 The modified rice was then cross-bred with a wild relative.

The team then allowed offspring cross-bred to breed with one another, resulting in second-generation hybrids that were genetically identical to their parents, except the number of copies of the gene that encodes EPSP synthase. The hybrids that had more copies of the gene had a higher chance to produce more tryptophan and have higher enzyme levels than their unmodified counterparts.

Researchers also discovered that transgenic hybrids produced 48 to 125 percent more seeds per plant, and had greater rates of photosynthesis and more shoots than the non-transgenic varieties.

Making weedy rice more competitive may increase the issues it creates for farmers across the globe where plots are ravaged by the pest, Lu says.

Brian Ford-Lloyd of Brian Ford-Lloyd from the University of Birmingham, UK Brian Ford-Lloyd, a researcher at the University of Birmingham in the "If the EPSP synthase gene is introduced to wild rice species the genetic diversity of their species is crucial in conserving it, could be endangered because it will beat out the conventional varieties." ラウンドアップ エノコログサ ラウンドアップ "This is one of the most clear instances of the extremely damaging consequences of GM crops on the environment."

The public has a perception that genetically engineered crops that have additional copies of microorganisms' genes are more secure than those with only the genes of their owners. Lu declares that "our study doesn't prove that this is true."

The finding calls for a rethinking of future regulation of the genetically altered crops, scientists say. Ellstrand states that "some people are now of the opinion that biosafety regulation could be relaxed due to our a high degree of comfort with genetic engineering for the past two decades." http://www.ihs-agri.jp/nouyaku/hatasaku-josou/hatasaku-josou-keiyou/josou101090010301.html "But this study has shown that novel products still need to be evaluated with care."