Genetically modified crops have advantages over weeds

The wild plants may have the advantage of resistance to herbicides.

Weedy rice can absorb transgenes derived from genetically modified crop rice by cross-pollinating. Credit: Xiao Yang
One of the most common methods used to make crops more resistant to herbicides has been shown to be superior over weedy forms of rice. These results suggest that such modifications may have a wide range of effects beyond the farms, and even out into the wild.

A range of crop varieties have been genetically modified so that they become resistant to Roundup herbicide glyphosate. Farmers are able to eliminate the weeds that grow in their fields with glyphosate, without harming their crops because of this resistance.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/roundup33wjni286/is an inhibitor of the growth of plants. It blocks an enzyme known EPSP synthase. This enzyme is responsible for the production of certain amino acids as well as other molecule. These compounds could account for up to 35% of a plants mass. The genetic modification method employed in Roundup Ready crops by Monsanto (based in St Louis in Missouri) involves inserting genetic material into the crop to increase EPSP synthase production.https://www.inventables.com/users/hermanlyon9700are typically derived from bacteria that are infected with plants.

The extra EPSP synthase helps the plant withstand the effects of glyphosate. Biotechnology labs tried to use genes from plants to boost EPSP synthase production. This was partially to make use of a loophole that is in US law that allows regulatory approval for transgenes in organisms that are not derived from pests of bacteria.

There aren' that have examined the possibility that transgenes that confer glyphosate tolerance could -- after they are weedy or become wild relatives through cross-pollinatingcan boost the plant's survival and reproduction. Norman Ellstrand of the University of California, Riverside, stated that the conventional expectation was that any transgene will confer disadvantage in nature if there was no pressure to select. This is because extra machinery could reduce the effectiveness of.

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 the weedy version of the popular rice crop Oryza Sativa.

In the study which was published this month in New Phytologist 1, Lu and his colleagues modified the genetics of the cultivated rice species to enhance its own EPSP synthase and cross-bred the altered rice with a weedy cousin.

The group then permitted the offspring from cross-breeding to cross-breed to create second-generation hybrids. They were genetically identical except for the amount of EPSP synthase genes they carried. Ashttps://repo.getmonero.org/roundup44agvp567would expect, hybrids that had more copies of the gene were more likely to produce more tryptophan and had greater levels of enzymes over their counterparts that were not modified.

Researchers also discovered that transgenic hybrids were photogenic, had more seeds per plant and had 48-125% higher yields of seeds than non-transgenic varieties.

Lu believes that making weedy rice less competitive could make it harder for farmers who have their land invaded by the pest.

-Lloyd of Brian Ford-Lloyd from the University of Birmingham, UK Brian Ford-Lloyd from the University of Birmingham, UK "If the EPSP synthase gene is introduced to wild rice varieties, their genetic variety, which was really important for conserving, could be endangered because it will outcompete the normal varieties." "This is an example of the most probable and damaging negative effects of GM crops on the environment."

The research also challenges the idea that genetically modified crops containing extra copies of their genes are less risky than those that contain microorganisms' genes. Lu states that his research does not contradict this view.

Researchers have said that this finding calls for reconsideration of the regulation for genetically modified crops. Ellstrand claims that some people believe that biosafety regulations could be relaxed since we have over two decades of genetic engineering. "But the study demonstrates that new products require cautious evaluation."