Barbara Jean Mazur

The molecular basis of sulfonylurea herbicide resistance in tobacco

The enzyme acetolactate synthase (ALS) is the target enzyme for the sulfonylurea and imidazolinone herbicides. We describe the isolation and characterization of the ALS genes from two herbicide‐resistant mutants, C3 and S4‐Hra, of Nicotiana tabacum. There are two distinct ALS genes in tobacco which are 0.7% divergent at the amino acid sequence level. The C3 mutant has a single Pro–Gln replacement at amino acid 196 in one ALS gene. This gene is termed the class I gene and is equivalent to the SuRA locus. The S4‐Hra mutant has two amino acid changes in the other ALS gene. This gene is termed the class II gene or the SuRB locus. The S4‐Hra mutant includes a Pro–Ala substitution at amino acid 196 and a Trp–Leu substitution at amino acid 573. Gene reintroduction experiments have confirmed that these amino acid substitutions are responsible for the herbicide resistance phenotypes. Transgenic plants carrying these genes are highly resistant to sulfonylurea herbicide applications.

Plant metabolic profiling en route to destination

A conference in Potsdam, Germany confirms that plant metabolic profiling is moving from an early focus on technology development to one that also addresses trait discovery.

Community crystal gazing

A selection of individuals from the biotech ecosystem give their views on the challenges facing the sector over the coming years.

Erratum: Community crystal gazing

Nat. Biotechnol. 34, 276–283 (2016); published online 10 March 2016; corrected after print 31 March 2016 In the version of this article initially published, Stanley Crookes name was misspelled as “Crook” in the author list. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.