Engineering Herbicide Tolerance in Transgenic Plants

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Abstract
The herbicide glyphosate is a potent inhibitor of the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate (EPSP) synthase in higher plants. A complementary DNA (cDNA) clone encoding EPSP synthase was isolated from a complementary DNA library of a glyphosate-tolerant Petunia hybrida cell line (MP4-G) that overproduces the enzyme. This cell line was shown to overproduce EPSP synthase messenger RNA as a result of a 20-fold amplification of the gene. A chimeric EPSP synthase gene was constructed with the use of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35 S promoter to attain high level expression of EPSP synthase and introduced into petunia cells. Transformed petunia cells as well as regenerated transgenic plants were tolerant to glyphosate.