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Wild plants might be resistant to herbicides.

Credit: Xiao Yang
It has been established that a genetic modification technique, which is widely used to make crops resistant to herbicides, can provide advantages to the rice that is weedy. The results suggest that this modification may be able to have positive effects on wild rice varieties as well as crop varieties.

A variety of cultivars have been genetically modified in order to resist the glyphosate. This herbicide was first available under the trade name Roundup. This resistance to glyphosate permits farmers to eradicate most plants without doing any harm to their crops.

https://sogo-e.jp/items/ラウンドアップマックスロード/ Glyphosate prevents plant growth by inhibiting EPSP synthase (an enzyme involved in the formation of amino acids, and other molecules). The enzyme can comprise as much as 35 percent or more of a plant's total mass. The method of genetic modification, which is used for Roundup Ready crops by Monsanto (based in St Louis in Missouri) is the process of inserting genes into the crop to increase EPSP-synthase output. The genes are usually derived from bacteria that cause disease in plants.

ラウンドアップ ラウンドアップ The plant is able to withstand the effects of glyphosate because of the additional EPSP synthase. Biotechnology labs have also attempted to use plants' genes to boost EPSP-synthase levels, in part to exploit an American loophole that allows for regulatory approval of transgenes not derived by bacterial pests.

Few studies have looked into the possibility that transgenes, like those that confer resistance glyphosate, could increase the resilience of plants in survival and reproduction once they cross-pollinate with weedy or wild species. ラウンドアップ "The conventional belief is that any transgene could cause disadvantage in the wild in the absence of selection pressure, because the additional machinery could reduce the fitness," says Norman Ellstrand an expert in plant genetics at the University of California in Riverside.

But now a study led by Lu Baorong, an ecologist from Fudan University in Shanghai, disproves that belief and shows that a weedy variant of the standard rice crop, Oryza sativa, gets a significant fitness boost from glyphosate resistance, even when glyphosate is not applied.

Their study was published in 1. Lu and his collaborators altered the genetics of cultivated rice to enhance its EPSP synthase activity and crossed it with a weedy cousin.

The group allowed the offspring from cross-breeding to breed with each other, creating second-generation hybrids that are genetically identical to each other , with the exception of the number of copies the gene that encodes EPSP synase. ラウンドアップ As was expected, those with more copies had higher enzyme levels and produced an increased amount of amino acid tryptophan compared to their unmodified counterparts.

Researchers also discovered that transgenic hybrids produced between 48 to 125 percent more seeds per plant. ラウンドアップ They also had greater rates of photosynthesis and more shoots than non-transgenic ones.

Lu believes that making weedy, invasive rice more competitive may hinder farmers to recover from the harm caused by this bug.

Brian Ford-Lloyd (a UK plant geneticist) claims that if the EPSP-synthase gene is introduced into wild rice species, then their genetic diversity that is vital to preserve could be endangered. The transgene could outcompete regular species. "This is a prime illustration of the most probable and damaging effects of GM crops on the environment."

The belief of the public that genetically modified crops with additional copies their genes are safer is questioned by this study. https://www.amazon.co.jp/日産化学-除草剤-原液タイプ-ラウンドアップマックスロード-500ｍｌ/dp/B001GH6XVQ Lu says, "Our study shows this is not necessarily true."

The findings call for a reconsideration of the future regulations for the genetically altered crops, scientists claim. Ellstrand thinks that biosafety laws may be relaxed because we can benefit from a high degree of security from two decades of genetic engineering. The study does not prove that the new products are secure.