Historically, farmers have struggled to control weed growth among their crops. With the advent of transgenic plants, farmers can now use crops that contain herbicide resistance genes. Therefore, entire fields can be treated with specific herbicides, killing weeds while the crops remain unharmed. In particular, crops resistant to glyphosate have seen widespread use. In plants, glyphosate inhibits the enzyme enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS), which is important for the synthesis of aromatic amino acids. Weakly glyphosate resistant variants of EPSPS have been identified and are currently used in commercial transgenic crops. Unfortunately, the relatively weak resistance afforded by the transgenic EPSPS combined with the emergence of glyphosate resistant weeds has created a need for a strongly glyphosate resistant EPSPS. Here we use a combination of biochemical and structural methods to challenge the problem of herbicide tolerance.

Investigation of an enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) suitable for herbicide resistant crops

246th National Meeting (2013)

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