The research groups of the Biotechnology Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) worked closely with Peking University and other research institutions to independently research and develop genetically modified herbicide-tolerant crops.
First, making full use of China's rich and environmentally unfriendly microbial gene resources, the Chinese scientists have built a functional bacterial strain library, a functional gene pool and a molecular enzyme library that have independent intellectual property rights. What's more, the scientists have integrated advanced technologies such as environmental genomics and functional genomics analysis technologies.
Through their efforts, EPSP synthase genes of a novel structure, well-defined functions, and significant tolerance to glyphosate was born. These are a new type of glyphosate-tolerant genes of independent intellectual property rights, which have obtained patents of invention both in China and in the US. Of the EPSP synthase genes, G2-EPSPS gene, being the first glyphosate-tolerant gene, has become one of the genes which are of the strongest tolerance to glyphosate and the highest enzymatic activity.
After a consecutive three-generation experiment starting in 2010 in Beijing and Hainan province, the researchers have found that genetically modified corn in the field could stably tolerate a dose of glyphosate five times as high as the normal dose. After adopting the farmers' herbicide spraying method, researchers found that genetically modified corn could also tolerate a dose of glyphosate eight times as high as the normal dose. The researchers have observed and measured the genetically modified corn in the two growing seasons in Beijing and Hainan. The results showed that the agronomic traits of the genetically modified corn are almost the same with the non-transgenic corn except the target glyphosate-tolerant trait.
At the same time, the research group entrusted two state-certified testing institutions, Institute of Plant Protection of CAAS and Laboratory of Food Safety of China Agricultural University, to test the environmental friendliness and food safety of the genetically modified glyphosate-tolerant corn during the production experiment.
As said by the expert Lin Min, "We bred genetically modified glyphosate- tolerant corn through EPSP synthase gene under the patent protection and conducted pilot and environmental release tests over the safety of transgenic organisms. It obtained approval from the Ministry of Agriculture in 2012 and entered the production test phase, which is a key step for the industrialization of genetically modified crops. If it obtained the safety certificate for its biological safety assessment in the next two years, and received the approval for its crop certification and got commercialized in the next three to five years, it would help China gain some market space in the global herbicide-tolerant GM industry.'