The wild plants could have the advantage of resistance to herbicides.
Credit Xiao Yang
Genetic modification to make crops resistant to herbicides has been widely utilized to provide advantages to species of rice that are weedy. The findings suggest that this modifications could have positive effects on wild rice varieties, as well as crop varieties.
A variety of varieties of crops are genetically modified to be resistive to the glyphosate. Roundup was the first herbicide to be marketed. The resistance to glyphosate allows farmers to get rid of weeds without causing any damage to their crops.
Glyphosate blocks an enzyme called EPSP synthase that is responsible for the production of specific amino acids and various other molecules. It can also hinder the growth of plants. ラウンドアップ , such as the Roundup Ready crops manufactured by Monsanto in St. Louis, Missouri, involves inserting genes into a plant’s genetic code to increase EPSP production. The genes are often derived from bacteria that have caused the infection of the plants.
ラウンドアップ 価格 permits the plant to withstand the effects from glyphosate. Biotechnology labs have tried using genes from plants to boost EPSP synthase activity. This was done in part to exploit a loophole within US law that permits regulatory approval of transgenes contained in organisms which have not come from pests caused by bacteria.
A few studies have explored whether transgenes like those that confer glyphosate resistant can increase the competitiveness of plants in reproductive success and longevity once they are introduced to weedy or wild relatives through cross-pollination. “The conventional belief is that any transgene will confer disadvantage in the wild in the absence of any selection pressure 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 is an Ecologist in Fudan University Shanghai. His research shows that resistance to glyphosate is a major fitness benefit, even though it’s not used.
Lu and his colleagues genetically modified the rice species to express its EPSP synthase, and then crossed-bred it with a weedy parent.
The team then allowed the offspring of cross-breeding to be bred together to produce second-generation hybrids. They were genetically identical with the exception of the number and copy count of the EPSP synthase gene. ラウンドアップ found that those who had greater copies of the gene that codes for EPSP synthase expressed more enzymes and produced more tryptophan, which is what we expected.
Researchers also found that plants with transgenic genes were more photosynthesis-intensive and produced more flowers and produced 48 to 125 percent fewer seeds per plant than nontransgenic hybrids. This was despite the fact that glyphosate wasn’t present.
Lu says that making the weedy grain more competitive could increase the difficulties it causes to farmers all over the world whose crops are infected by the insect.
ラウンドアップ amazon -Lloyd (a UK plant geneticist) says that if the EPSP-synthase gene is introduced into wild rice species, their genetic diversity that is essential to protect could be threatened. The transgene would outcompete normal species. ” ラウンドアップ is one example of the most likely and harmful negative effects of GM crops on the environment.”
The study also challenges the popular belief that crops modified genetically with additional copies of their own genes are more secure than those that contain genes from microorganisms. Lu claims that the research “shows that this is not always the case”.
A few researchers believe this discovery requires a review of the future regulation of genetically modified crops. Ellstrand says that “some people are now of the opinion that biosafety regulations can be relaxed because we have the most comfort with genetic engineering for the past two decades.” “But the research shows that new products require cautious evaluation.”