Detoxification OR Degradation of Herbicides,Detoxifying Enzymes,Microbes,Transgenic Tomato Plants,Streptomyces,Brassica Napus

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	Detoxification OR Degradation of Herbicides - Detoxification or degradation of herbicides is the basis of selective use of herbicide, so that the latter will kill the weeds and not the crop. A number of detoxifying enzymes have been identified in plants as well as in microbes. Some of these enzymes include (i) glutathione-S transferase or GST (in maize and other plants), which detoxifies the herbicide atrazine; (ii) nitrilase (coded by gene bxn in Klebsiella pneumoniae, which detoxifies the herbicide bromoxynil, and (iii) phosphinothricin acetyl transferase or PAT (coded by bar gene in Streptomyces spp.), which detoxifies the herbicide PYI' (L-phosphinothricin).
Transgenic tomato plants using the bxn gene from Klebsiella and bar gene from Streptomyces and transgenic plants in potato, oilseed rape (Brassica napus) and sugarbeet using bar gene from Streptomyces have been obtained and were found to be herbicide resistant, Other target crops for engineered herbicide tolerance include soybean, cotton and corn. Field trials with transgenic plants in some cases are either being conducted or will be conducted in the near future, so that the utility of transgenic herbicide resistant plants and the risk of growing them at the commercial scale. It is estimated that the first transgenic plants will be commercially grown in mid 1990's and that a number of other transgenic plants will be grown commercially before the turn of the century.