Glyphosate tolerant maize

Introduction of a tolerance to the glyphosate herbicide in maize plants by expression of a mutated form a bacterial 5-enolpyruvyl-shikimate-3-phosphate synthetase (EPSPS) protein insensitive to the herbicide. This herbicide acts as an inhibitor of this enzyme in plants. The EPSPS enzyme is involved in the biosynthetic pathway of the aromatic amino-acids (tryptophan, tyrosine and phenylalanine).

pAG3541

Notes on the inserted genetic elements:
Ubiquitin promoter specifically obtained from Saccharum officinarum and includes the promoter region, 5'UTR and intron from the Ubiquitin 4 gene.

The mutagenesis of the original sequence of epsps gene from Arthobacter has been performed using the Mutazyme II system. Several mutations have been randomly performed, and modified epsps sequences have been inserted into E. coli. Subsequently, the activity of mutated genes has been tested by in vitro test based on enzymatic activity and thermal stability. The best sequence has been chosen to be used for the maize transformation.

Southern blot analysis indicated that a single intact insert was integrated into line VCO-Ø1981-5. No segments from the vector backbone were integrated into the LM maize.