glyphosate resistance

Weed populations can have high genetic plasticity and rapid responses to environmental selection pressures. For example, 100-fold amplification of the 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) gene evolved in the weed species Amaranthus palmeri to confer resistance to glyphosate, the world’s most important herbicide.

The objective of this study was to determine whether a junglerice population from the tropical Ord River region of northwest Australia was glyphosate resistant, and whether alternative herbicides labeled for junglerice control were still effective.

In a world of more than 6 billion people, humans heavily rely on the dependable cultivation of the global food grain crops: rice, wheat, soybeans, maize (and cotton for fiber). History shows that threats to food production have major repercussions, including famine, war, and civil unrest.

In Australia, glyphosate has been used routinely to control wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum L.) for the past 40 years. This study focuses on two field-evolved glyphosate-resistant populations of wild radish collected from the grainbelt of Western Australia.