News Release

Transporter conferring herbicide resistance in plants

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Plant resistance to the herbicide glyphosate may be mediated by the superfamily of transporters implicated in anticancer drug resistance in humans, a study finds. The ubiquitous use of the herbicide glyphosate has led to the evolution of glyphosate-resistant weed species. Qin Yu, Lianyang Bai, Stephen Powles, and colleagues report that herbicide resistance in plants can be mediated by ABC transporters, which are also implicated in human cancer drug resistance. The plant ABC transporter gene EcABCC8 exhibited higher expression levels in glyphosate-resistant samples of awnless barnyardgrass, a species of weed, compared with glyphosate-susceptible samples. Overexpression of orthologous genes of EcABCC8 conferred glyphosate resistance to rice, maize, and soybean, and decreased cellular levels of the herbicide. Using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technique, the authors deactivated the EcABCC8 ortholog in rice, thereby increasing glyphosate susceptibility and increasing cellular levels of the herbicide, compared with genetically unmodified plants. Additional analysis suggested that the EcABCC8 transporter is likely located in the plasma membrane. Together, the findings suggest that the transporter can move glyphosate out of the cytoplasm and into the extracellular space, thereby reducing its toxicity to plants, according to the authors.

Article #21-00136: "An ABCC-type transporter endowing glyphosate resistance in plants," by Lang Pan et al.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Qin Yu, University of Western Australia, Perth, AUSTRALIA; tel: +61 8 6488 7041; email: qin.yu@uwa.edu.au; Lianyang Bai, Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changsha, CHINA; email: lybai@hunaas.cn; Stephen Powles, University of Western Australia, Perth, AUSTRALIA; tel: +61 418 927181; email: stephen.powles@uwa.edu.au

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