DL-phosphinothricin (syn. Glufosinate Ammonium) is a freely soluble broad-spectrum herbicide aand the active ingredient in Basta.® The compound is an analog of Glutamate that acts as a competitive inhibitor of Glutamine synthetase thus it causes inhibition of glutamine production. DL-phosphinothricin is used as a selection agent for the bar and pat genes.
| Mechanism of Action | DL-phosphinothricin interferes with the synthesis of the amino acid, glutamine. Toxicity of DL-phosphinothricin arises from glutamine shortages which can lead to an inability to detoxify ammonia and suppress photosynthesis activity. |
| Plant Biology Applications | DL-Phosphinothricin is a broad-spectrum herbicide. It can also be used as selection marker since resistance can be transferred by genetic transformation. McPhee et al (2004) used glufosinate ammonium for selecting successfully transformed Pea plantlets. |
| Molecular Formula | C5H15N2O4P |
| References |
Byeon JH and Cho JH (2013) An efficient method for organic acetylation and use of DL-phosphinothricin as a negative selection agent in argE transgenic rice. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 8;441(1):243-248 PMID 24141117 McPhee KE, Gollasch S, Schroeder, HE, Higgins TJV (2004) Gene technology in pea. In: Curtis, IS (eds) Transgenic crops of the world. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2333-0_26. Ch. 26 p 351–359 You W and Barker AV (2002) Herbicidal actions of root-applied Glufosinate Ammonium on tomato plants. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci 127(2):200-204 |
