Herbicide contamination of streams has been well documented, but little is currently known about the specific factors affecting watershed vulnerability to herbicide transport. The primary objectives of this study were (1) to document herbicide occurrence and transport from watersheds in the northern Missouri/southern Iowa region; (2) to quantify watershed vulnerability to herbicide transport an...

By learning lessons from weed science we have adopted three approaches to make plants more effective in phytoremediation: (1) The application of functional genomics to identify key components involved in the detoxification of, or tolerance to, xenobiotics for use in subsequent genetic engineering/breeding programmes. (2) The rational metabolic engineering of plants through the use of forced evo...

The adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops has increased dramatically during the last 3 years, and currently over 52 million hectares of GM crops are planted world-wide. Approximately 41 million hectares of GM crops planted are herbicide-resistant crops, which includes an estimated 33.3 million hectares of herbicide-resistant soybean. Herbicide-resistant maize, canola, cotton and soybean a...

The practice of composting mixed green wastes from community collection programs has been on the increase as a means to reduce organic debris to landfills. Recent reports of plant injury have appeared and were attributed to residues of the herbicide clopyralid in compost. Phytotoxicity issues with compost have been reported previously to result from other factors, including heavy metal content,...

Imidazolinone herbicides, which include imazapyr, imazapic, imazethapyr, imazamox, imazamethabenz and imazaquin, control weeds by inhibiting the enzyme acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS), also called acetolactate synthase (ALS). AHAS is a critical enzyme for the biosynthesis of branched-chain amino acids in plants. Several variant AHAS genes conferring imidazolinone tolerance were discovered in p...

Extensive research has been conducted regarding the occurrence of herbicides in the hydrologic system, their fate, and their effects on human health and the environment. Few studies, however, have considered herbicide transformation products (degradates). In this study of Iowa ground water, herbicide degradates were frequently detected. In fact, herbicide degradates were eight of the 10 most fr...

BACKGROUND Pesticides are developed with carriers to improve their physicochemical properties and, accordingly, the bioefficacy of the applied formulation. For foliar-applied herbicide, generally less than 0.1% of the active ingredient reaching the target site could reduce pesticide performance. Recently, a carrier of nanoemulsion consisting of oil, surfactant and water, with a particle size of...

The identification of herbicide residues on crop foliage is necessary to make crop-management decisions for weed pest control and to monitor pesticide residue levels on food crops. Electronic-nose (e-nose) methods were tested as a cheaper, alternative means of discriminating between herbicide residue types (compared with conventional chromatography methods), by detection of headspace volatiles ...