ABSTRACT
Much of the development of herbicide-resistant crops has been based on “isolate/mutate the herbicide target,” with a rare quest for a degradation gene (Chapter 6). This assumes that there is no fitness penalty to mutate a target site that nature has honed for maximal efficiency. Why the human ego presumes it can do nature one better is a subject for psychologists not physiologists. A considerable amount of biochemistry has been learnt and remains to be learnt, as can be seen in the case histories. Despite great efforts, there has been no success in obtaining plants resistance to phytoene desaturase-inhibiting herbicides. What must be learnt from this lesson?
