Roundup Ready® wheat (MON 71800) was developed to allow the use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup®, as a weed control option in spring wheat production. This genetically engineered spring wheat contains a novel form of the plant enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) that allows MON 71800 to survive an otherwise lethal application of glyphosate. The EPSPS gene introduced into MON 71800 was isolated from a strain of the common soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain CP4, and the novel form of the EPSPS enzyme produced by this gene is tolerant to glyphosate.

The EPSPS enzyme is part of the shikimate pathway, an important biochemical pathway in plants involved in the production of aromatic amino acids and other aromatic compounds. When conventional plants are treated with glyphosate, the plants cannot produce the aromatic amino acids needed for growth and survival. EPSPS is present in all plants, bacteria, and fungi. It is not present in animals, since these organisms are unable to synthesize their own aromatic amino acids. Because the aromatic amino acid pathway is not present in mammals, birds, or aquatic life forms, glyphosate has little, if any, toxicity for these organisms. The EPSPS enzyme is naturally present in foods derived from plant and microbial sources. MON 71800 was developed by introducing two CP4 EPSPS genes into the spring wheat variety ‘Bobwhite’ using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.

The food and livestock safety of MON 71800 wheat was based on the safety assessment of the CP4 EPSPS protein and the level of expression of the protein in the grain. The CP4 EPSPS proteins constitutes a small amount of the total protein in MON 71800 so there is little dietary exposure. The lack of toxicity or allergenicity of CP4 EPSPS was demonstrated from the results of laboratory and safety studies. The nutritional equivalence and wholesomeness of MON 71800 wheat compared to conventional wheat was demonstrated by the analysis of key nutrients in the grain including proximates (e.g., crude protein, crude fat, crude fibre, ash, moisture), total dietary fibre, sugars, starch, amino acid and fatty acid composition, B vitamins and vitamin E, minerals, as well the composition in the anti-nutrient phytic acid.