Agronomic performance of insect-protected and herbicide-tolerant MON 89034 × TC1507 × NK603 × DAS-40278–9 corn is equivalent to that of conventional corn

Abstract

Agronomic characteristics of genetically modified (GM) MON 89034 × TC1507 × NK603 × DAS-40278–9 (PowerCore™ Enlist™), MON 89034 × TC1507 × NK603 (PowerCore™), and DAS-40278–9 (Enlist™) corn, a non-GM near-isogenic hybrid, and 2 commercial non-GM hybrids were assessed in a field study to determine if the agronomic performance of the GM corn hybrids is equivalent to that of non-transgenic hybrid corn. The MON 89034 × TC1507 × NK603 × DAS-40278–9 hybrid corn was developed through stacking of 4 individual transgenic events, MON 89034, TC1507, NK603, and DAS-40278–9 by traditional breeding and contains the cry1A.105 and cry2Ab2 (MON 89034), cry1F and pat (TC1507), cp4 epsps (NK603) and aad-1 (DAS-40278–9) transgenes. These transgenes encode the proteins Cry1A.105, Cry2Ab2, and Cry1F, which confer insect resistance, PAT, CP4 EPSPS, and AAD-1, which confer herbicide tolerance. The following agronomic characteristics were assessed in the study: initial and final stand count, seedling vigor, time to silk, time to pollen shed, pollen viability, plant height, ear height, stalk lodging, root lodging, days to maturity, stay green, disease incidence, insect damage, herbicide injury, and yield. The agronomic assessment was conducted in 2 regions of Brazil (Indianopolis-MG; Cravinhos-SP). The agronomic attributes for all GM entries were statistically indistinguishable from the non-GM near-isogenic hybrid. In addition, most of the agronomic assessments fell within the range of the commercial varieties included in the study. Taken together, MON 89034 × TC1507 × NK603 × DAS-40278, MON 89034 × TC1507 × NK603, and DAS-40278–9 were found to be agronomically equivalent to non-GM corn.