Herbicide Tolerance Broad Spectrum Resistance For healthy crops farmers must control weeds in their fields. It is often most efficient to kill all the weeds with one application of a broad spectrum herbicide. Unfortunately, this kind of herbicide cannot tell the difference between weeds and crops and crops may be damaged if it is not applied correctly. Two agrichemical companies which do research in Saskatoon, Hoechst and Monsanto , have effective broad spectrum herbicides. They are using transgenics to develop herbicide-resistant strains of canola.
New genes give canola plants unique techniques to survive the herbicide.
The new canola varieties can be grown safely and weed-free. The Future Today's transgenic researchers use traits produced by only a few genes because it can be difficult to isolate even one or two desired genes. Many plant traits which would improve production are organized by fifty genes or more and with current technology these are very difficult to identify and analyze. Once biotechnologists learn to isolate the more complicated genetic traits like high yield and drought tolerance, the opportunities for transgenics will be endless.