A novel approach to determine the glyphosate tolerant trait in soybeans

The ability of soybean breeders to accurately, economically, and rapidly determine the transfer of the CP4 gene, the gene which confers soybean tolerance to the herbicide glyphosate, to elite soybean lines is essential to development of new glyphosate tolerant soybean (GTS) cultivars. This research focused on a simple greenhouse screening procedure to replace large, costly, and laborious field screening. Non-GTS seed was determined to be susceptible to soaking in a 1% glyphosate solution for 4 h. This process is quicker, more efficient, and as reliable as field screening for determination of glyphosate susceptibility in soybean seed. Furthermore, this research clearly demonstrates that the metabolic pathway of glyphosate activity, the shikimate acid pathway, is active, and the target enzyme of glyphosate, 5-enol-pyruvyl-shikimate-3-phosphate synthase, is present during seed germination.