Development of the transgenic sugarcane event TUC 87-3RG resistant to glyphosate

OSTENGO, S.; COSTILLA, D; FILIPPONE M.P.; NOGUERA A. S.; PERERA M. F.; ZOSSI, S.; WELIN G.V.B.; ENRIQUE, R. A.; RACEDO J.,; CUENYA, M. I.; CASTAGNARO, A. P.

San Miguel de Tucumán

Congreso; XXX International ISSCT Sugarcane Congress 2019; 2019

ISSCT

Sugarcane(Saccharum hybrid) commercial cultivarRA87-3 was transformed through particle bombardment with a genetic construct incorporatingthe epsps gene from Agrobacterium strain CP4 conferringresistance to the broad-spectrum herbicide glyphosate.  Out of 43 PCR-positive transformed lines, 17showed high glyphosate-resistance when tested under greenhouse conditions.  All lines maintained glyphosate resistancewhen they were planted in a small-scale field trial, but only six showed phenotypic resemblance to the parental cultivar.  The process of deregulation started in 2011and was conducted almost entirely by an interdisciplinary research team of theEstación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres (EEAOC) responding to arequest by the National AdvisoryCommission on Agricultural Biotechnology (Comisión Nacional Asesora deBiotecnología Agropecuaria,CONABIA) and the National Agrifood Health and Quality Service (ServicioNacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria, SENASA).  The goal of the process was to ensure that thetransgenic sugarcane event is substantially equivalent to parental cultivar andis safe for both environmental and human health.  All six genotypically and phenotypicallyclosely related events showed comparable agronomical and industrial traits ascompared to parental line RA 87-3 when they were field evaluated in twoindependent production areas in Argentina.  Moreover, molecular studies confirmed that twolines were almost identical and were subsequently selected forcommercialization.  Thispaper describes some of the results obtained in the evaluation process, asrequested by CONABIA and SENASA with the goal of ultimately facilitating thecommercial release of the transgenic event TUC 87-3RG.