China Develops High Dual Herbicide Tolerant Maize

To decrease the effects of herbicide resistance on weeds, scientists from the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology in Zhejiang University developed a dual herbicide tolerant maize that aims to assist Chinese farmers in crop management.

Glyphosate resistance in weeds is considered a severe threat to weed management systems. To address this, the scientist developed and characterized herbicide tolerant maize event SCB-29 that expresses cp4 esps and bar genes. It is a single-copy T-DNA insertion event with an intact T-DNA fragment inserted into chromosome 10. The line is intended to be tolerant to the quadruple recommended rates of glyphosate and glufosinate.

PCR analyses showed that the gene expressions are stable over several generations. The major agronomic performance of the event was similar to the non-transgenic counterpart and does not appear to have yield drag. Moreover, it was found to provide ample tolerance to both glyphosate and glufosinate. The scientists concluded that SCB-29 is an excellent maize candidate for possible commercial release in China.

Read Agronomy for more details.