Rise of the mutant weed: weeds and herbicide resistance

Weeds are simply unwanted plants. In commodity agriculture, the goal is to keep competition for space, water, and sunlight from unwanted plants at a minimum. How does a farmer do that? She might use an herbicide, a specific pesticide that is targeted to kill a plant that is unwanted. There are many herbicides with multiple modes of action. Herbicides often disrupt important physiological processes within the plant (photosynthesis, amino acid biosynthesis, etc) by attacking specific molecules or target sites in the plant, which end up killing the weed. In some cases, mutations at these target sites have allowed pigweeds to escape the full effects of herbicides. Several mutations within the genome have been linked to herbicide resistance in waterhemp and Palmer amaranth. Once mechanisms for herbicide resistance are found, rapidly identifying and eradicating pigweed populations carrying those traits becomes critical to reduce further spread of mutant pigweeds.

This activity provides an introduction into one herbicide (PPO-inhibitors) and the mutation (ΔG210) that allows waterhemp and pigweed to be resistant. Participants will learn to use basic bioinformatic tools to search for the mutation as well as identify the species of pigweed using a DNA library.

Learn more about this particular type of herbicide resistance.