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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. sp7 (2026): International Conference on Agricultural Sustainability

Response of selected corn (Zea mays L.) varieties and inbreed lines to the glyphosate herbicide

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.14379
Submitted
4 March 2026
Published
15-09-2026

Abstract

Corn (Zea mays. L) is the world's main food commodity after wheat and rice. One of the crucial problems in corn cultivation is weed disturbances that can reduce yields by 30–80 %. The current reliable weed control technology is the use of herbicides and the most widely used herbicides are herbicides with the active ingredient glyphosate. However, the glyphosate herbicide can kill all crops, including corn that is affected by this herbicide. There has been a lot of research on the diversity of maize varieties in terms of susceptibility to this broad-spectrum glyphosate herbicide. Some have found that there are significant differences in herbicide tolerance between some varieties of corn. This difference in response is caused by a difference in the activity level of the EPSP synthase (5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phospate synthase) enzyme, which is the target component of the glyphosate herbicide. This research was conducted on grain corn hybrid, namely the R1001 and R1137 lines, the ADV Jago variety and corn genetically engineered NK 212s variety. The results of this study show that all normal maize (lines and varieties), which are not genetically modified maize, that are exposed to this herbicide, regardless of the concentration, will die within 6–7 days. The death of corn is caused by the damage of EPSP synthase enzyme in the shikimate pathway in the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids so that proteins and secondary metabolite compounds such as phenolics and flavonoids as well as growth hormone (auxin) will not be formed. This death is shown by stunted plant height, leaf length and leaf width, plant stress level and plant death.The EPSP synthase enzymes in this ordinary corn plant which can be replaced by EPSP synthase enzyme which cannot be damaged by the herbicide glyphosate so that corn plants exposed to this herbicide will not be disturbed in their growth and development as shown by the genetically engineered hybrid corn in this experiment. The native EPSP synthase enzyme in conventional maize is replaced by a glyphosate-tolerant EPSP synthase enzyme that is not inhibited by the herbicide glyphosate. Consequently, genetically engineered hybrid maize exposed to glyphosate exhibits normal growth and development, as demonstrated in the present experiment.

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