Mechanisms of glyphosate resistance in two perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) populations

BACKGROUND Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) has developed resistance to glyphosate within New Zealand vineyards following many years of herbicide application. The objectives of this work were to confirm resistance within two populations obtained from affected vineyards, and to determine the mechanism of resistance to glyphosate. RESULTS Population O was confirmed to have a 25-fold resistance to glyphosate, whereas population J had a sevenfold resistance. Results of genotyping assays demonstrated a single nucleotide substitution at codon 106 of 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase in population O but not population J. Glyphosate-resistant and glyphosate-susceptible populations did not differ in glyphosate absorption. However, in both resistant populations, much more of the absorbed 14C-glyphosate remained in the treated leaf than occurred in the susceptible population. Significantly more glyphosate was found in the pseudostem region of susceptible plants compared with resistant plants. CONCLUSION Both target-site and non-target-site mechanisms of glyphosate resistance were found in the perennial ryegrass population with 25-fold resistance, whereas only the non-target-site mechanism of resistance was found in the population with sevenfold resistance. This is the first study of the mechanism of glyphosate resistance in perennial ryegrass.