Response of 98140 Corn With Gat4621 and hra Transgenes to Glyphosate and ALS-Inhibiting Herbicides

Abstract

The transgenic corn line 98140 has a high level of resistance to glyphosate and all five chemical classes of herbicides that inhibit acetolactate synthase (ALS). The dual herbicide resistance is due to a molecular stack of two constitutively expressed genes: gat4621, which produces a glyphosate acetyltransferase that rapidly inactivates glyphosate, and hra, which produces a highly resistant ALS. On a rate basis, the positive 98140 isoline with a single copy of the gat4621 gene is over 1,000-fold more resistant to glyphosate than a negative isoline without the transgene. Similarly, the positive 98140 isoline with the hra gene is over 1,000-fold more resistant to ALS-inhibiting herbicides such as chlorimuron and sulfometuron at the whole-plant and enzyme level. The gat4621 and hra genes do not change the natural tolerance of corn to selective herbicides, so new corn hybrids based on 98140 will give growers more options to manage weeds and delay the evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds.