GM Watch
  • Main Menu
    • Home
    • News
      • Newsletter subscription
      • Daily Digest
      • News Reviews
      • News Languages
    • Articles
      • GM Myth Makers
      • GM Reports
      • GM Quotes
      • GM Myths
      • Non-GM successes
      • GM Firms
        • Monsanto: a history
        • Monsanto: resources
        • Bayer: a history
        • Bayer: resources
    • Videos
      • Latest Videos
      • Must see videos
      • Cornell videos
      • Agriculture videos
      • Labeling videos
      • Animals videos
      • Corporations videos
      • Corporate takeover videos
      • Contamination videos
      • Latin America videos
      • India videos
      • Asia videos
      • Food safety videos
      • Songs videos
      • Protests videos
      • Biofuel myths videos
      • Index of GM crops and foods
      • Index of speakers
      • Health Effects
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donations
    • How donations will help us
News and comment on genetically modified foods and their associated pesticides    
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Newsletter subscription
    • News Reviews
    • News Languages
      • Notícias em Português
      • Nieuws in het Nederlands
      • Nachrichten in Deutsch
    • Archive
      • 2021 articles
      • 2020 articles
      • 2019 articles
      • 2018 articles
      • 2017 articles
      • 2016 articles
      • 2015 articles
      • 2014 articles
      • 2013 articles
      • 2012 articles
      • 2011 articles
      • 2010 articles
      • 2009 articles
      • 2008 articles
      • 2007 articles
      • 2006 articles
      • 2005 articles
      • 2004 articles
      • 2003 articles
      • 2002 articles
      • 2001 articles
      • 2000 articles
  • Articles
    • GM Myth Makers
    • GM Reports
    • How donations will help us
    • GM Quotes
    • GM Myths
    • Non-GM successes
    • GM Firms
      • Monsanto: a history
      • Monsanto: resources
      • Bayer: a history
      • Bayer: resources
  • Videos
    • Index of speakers
    • Glyphosate Videos
    • Latest Videos
    • Must see videos
    • Health Effects
    • Cornell videos
    • Agriculture videos
    • Labeling videos
    • Animals videos
    • Corporations videos
    • Corporate takeover videos
    • Contamination videos
    • Latin America videos
    • India videos
    • Asia videos
    • Food safety videos
    • Songs videos
    • Protests videos
    • Biofuel myths videos
    • Index of GM crops and foods
  • Contact
  • About
  • Donations
SUBSCRIBE TO REVIEWS

LATEST NEWS

  • EU Commission breaking own rules to give green light for new GMOs?

  • Australia: New South Wales ag minister sacrifices GMO discretion

  • The Monsanto Papers: Deadly secrets, corporate corruption, and one man's search for justice

  • Researchers want GMO transparency

  • New GM technology has no place in sustainable farming

GMWatch Facebook cornfield banner

SCIENCE SUPPORTS REGULATION OF GENE EDITING

Plant tissue cultures

GENE EDITING: UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES AND RISKS

Damaged DNA on fire

GENE-EDITED CROPS & FOODS

Help stop the new threat

GM Fed pig

News Menu

  • Latest News
  • News Reviews
  • Archive
  • Languages

News Archive

  • 2021 articles
  • 2020 articles
  • 2019 articles
  • 2018 articles
  • 2017 articles
  • 2016 articles
  • 2015 articles
  • 2014 articles
  • 2013 articles
  • 2012 articles
  • 2011 articles
  • 2010 articles
  • 2009 articles
  • 2008 articles
  • 2007 articles
  • 2006 articles
  • 2005 articles
  • 2004 articles
  • 2003 articles
  • 2002 articles
  • 2001 articles
  • 2000 articles

Glyphosate-resistant weed from the US invades Japan through GM grain imports

  • Print
  • Email
Details
Published: 30 November 2020
Twitter

Study detected glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth at ports

1. Glyphosate-resistant weed from the US invades Japan through GM grain imports (commentary from Third World Network)
2. Initial invasion of glyphosate‐resistant Amaranthus palmeri around grain‐import ports in Japan (peer-reviewed paper)
---

1. Glyphosate-resistant weed from the US invades Japan through GM grain imports

Third World Network, 30 Nov 2020
https://biosafety-info.net/articles/assessment-impacts/ecological/glyphosate-resistant-weed-from-the-us-invades-japan-through-gm-grain-imports/

More than 80% of the area planted to GM crops in the US has been planted with herbicide-resistant crops, the most common being glyphosate-resistant. The intensive use of glyphosate has resulted in the evolution of resistance by some 48 weed species in the US, one of the most problematic being Amaranthus palmeri.

Internationally traded grain commodities are recognized as a pathway for the introduction of weed seeds into new areas because similarities in shape and size to crop seeds hinder removal of contaminant weed seeds. The contaminants sometimes include herbicide‐resistant seeds, which can later spill during the transport of grain commodities and become naturalized in importing countries.

The US is the largest source to Japan of corn, soybean, and cotton crops genetically modified to be glyphosate-resistant. A study detected A. palmeri resistant to glyphosate at Kashima, Hakata, and Mizushima ports. The individuals collected from the ports were genetically similar to the US accessions, with no genetic isolation by distance among Japanese and US individuals. Because GM plants have not been commercially cultivated in Japan, their feral occurrence is evidence of spillage during transport of GM grain commodities.

Glyphosate-resistant A. palmeri was first reported in Georgia in 2004. Less than 10 years later, it has become established in Japan, where it has the potential to become a troublesome weed because glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicides. Another concern is interspecific hybridization within the Amaranthus genus, resulting in more problematic weeds that may serve as conduits for further inter‐population spread of the glyphosate resistance gene.
---

2. Initial invasion of glyphosate‐resistant Amaranthus palmeri around grain‐import ports in Japan

Shimono, A., Kanbe, H., Nakamura, S., Ueno, S., Yamashita, J., & Asai, M.
Plants, People, Planet, 24 September 2020
https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10156
https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ppp3.10156

Societal Impact Statement

The dispersal of alien species is tightly coupled to human activities such as trade and transport. Trade is known to spread troublesome weeds from countries exporting, to those importing, grain. Glyphosate resistant (GR) Amaranthus palmeri is one of the most problematic weeds in the US, which is the largest grain exporter to Japan. We demonstrate that GR A. palmeri has become established in a Japanese port in less than 10 years from the first report of GR A. palmeri in the US. The initial detection of alien species is critical to enable effective control measures to be undertaken, before problematic species are able to spread more widely.

Summary

The US is the largest source to Japan of crops genetically modified to be glyphosate resistant (GR). The intensive use of glyphosate in the US has led to the evolution of GR Amaranthus palmeri, one of the most problematic weeds in the US. Here, we investigated the initial invasion and establishment of GR A. palmeri at grain-importing ports in Japan.

The primary glyphosate resistance mechanism is a copy-number amplification of the 297kb region containing the herbicide target site gene 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS). We used quantitative PCR to measure the EPSPS genomic copy number and used PCR to confirm the presence of the other amplified region. We used microsatellite marker analysis to compare the genetic similarities between Japanese populations and US accessions.

We detected GR A. palmeri at three ports: although present as a casual plant at two of the three ports, GR populations were established at one of the ports investigated. The port populations were found to be genetically similar to the US accessions and showed no geographical genetic structure.

This study shows that GR A. palmeri has naturalized in Japan in less than 10 years from the first report of GR A. palmeri in the US.

Menu

Home

News

News Archive

News Reviews

Videos

Articles

GM Myth Makers

GM Reports

GM Myths

GM Quotes

How Donations Will Help Us

Contacts

Contact Us

About

Facebook

Twitter

RSS

Content 1999 - 2021 GMWatch.
Web Development By SCS Web Design