Abstract
This article reviews, focusing on maize and soybean, previous efforts to develop nontransgenic herbicide-resistant crops (HRCs), currently available transgenic HRC traits and technologies, as well as future chemical weed management options over the horizon. Since the mid twentieth century, herbicides rapidly replaced all other means of weed management. Overreliance on ‘herbicide-only’ weed control strategies hastened evolution of HR weed species. Glyphosate-resistant (GR) crop technology revolutionized weed management in agronomic crops, but GR weeds, led by Palmer amaranth, severely reduced returns from various cropping systems and affected the bottom line of growers across the world. An additional problem was the lack of commercialization of a new herbicide mode of action since the 1990s. Auxinic HRCs offer a short-term alternative for management of GR Palmer amaranth and other weed species. New HRCs stacked with multiple herbicide resistance traits and at least two new herbicide modes of action expected to be available in the mid-2020s provide new chemical options for weed management in row crops in the next decade.
Highlights
Weeds cause extensive losses amounting to billions of US$ [1] through increased production costs, decreased quality and quantity of produce, reduced aesthetic value of landscapes that they thrive in, health effects on humans and pets, and other undesirable effects such as fuel for forest fires, etc
Herbicides rapidly replaced all other means of weed management due to their superior efficacy, relatively low cost, selectivity, and targeted weed control
A type of aryloxyalkanoate dioxygenase (AAD) enzyme was identified that provided resistance to 2,4-D as well as a class of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) inhibiting herbicides, popularly known as ‘fops’ belonging to the aryloxyphenoxypropionate (AOPP) chemical family, for example, quizalofop [10,11]. 2,4-D and the ‘fop’ herbicides possess an identical bond that facilitates their metabolism by a common enzyme
Summary
Weeds cause extensive losses amounting to billions of US$ [1] through increased production costs, decreased quality and quantity of produce, reduced aesthetic value of landscapes that they thrive in, health effects on humans and pets, and other undesirable effects such as fuel for forest fires, etc. Several herbicides belonging to different chemical classes and possessing diverse modes of action have been synthesized and commercialized around the world. There has been at least one herbicide labeled for every cropping system imagined. Herbicides provided advantages such as increased productivity, improved quality of produce, reduced drudgery of hand weeding, and reduced soil erosion and top soil loss due to reduced cultivation and tillage (enhanced by less fossil fuel use). Plants 2019, 8, 337 max (L.) Merr.) only with discussion of earlier efforts to develop herbicide-resistant crops (HRCs), currently available HRC technologies, and future developments in the HRC arena
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