Roundup Ready™ canola

Glyphosate herbicide tolerant canola produced by inserting the epsps gene encoding the enzyme 5-enolypyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) and glyphosate oxidase (gox) from Ochrobactrum anthropi. These modifications confer tolerance to the herbicide glyphosate.

Cultivar: Westar (Standard variety used in the Western Canadian Cooperative Rapeseed Test (Co-Op Test))

PV-BNGT04

The Glyphosate oxidoreductase varies from the wild type version of the gene at 3 amino acid sites (G85S, R153K and R334H) and is designated as goxv247.

PCR and southern blot analysis indicated that MON-ØØØ73-7 contains a single insertion event containing one copy of the T-DNA from plasmid PV-BNGT04. No genetic elements from outside of the right and left borders of the plasmid were transferred into or are present in the genomic DNA of the LMO.

The epsps gene codes for the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) that is present in all plants, bacteria and fungi. The epsps gene put into GT73 was isolated from strain CP4 of the common soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens and is a glyphosate tolerant form of EPSPS. The EPSPS enzyme is part of an important biochemical pathway in plants called the shikimate pathway, which is involved in the production of aromatic amino acids and other aromatic compounds. When conventional canola plants are treated with glyphosate, the plants cannot produce the aromatic amino acids needed to grow and survive. EPSPS is not present in mammals, birds or aquatic life forms, which do not synthesize their own aromatic amino acids. For this reason, glyphosate has little toxicity to these organisms. The EPSPS enzyme is naturally present in foods derived from plant and microbial sources.

The canola line GT73 contains a second gene that codes for a modified version of glyphosate oxidase (GOX) enzyme that is ubiquitous in nature. The goxv247 gene inserted into GT73 was isolated from strain LBAA of the bacterium Ochrobactrum anthropi. Glyphosate oxidase (GOX) enzyme accelerates the normal breakdown of the herbicide glyphosate into two non-toxic compounds, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) and glyoxylate. AMPA is the principal breakdown product of glyphosate and is degraded by several microorganisms, while glyoxylate is commonly found in plant cells and is broken down by the glyoxylic pathway for lipid metabolism.