Dynamics of Soil Fungal Population in Herbicide Resistant Canola Fields

Abstract

High yielding and stress tolerant crops are vital for food security needs of a growing population. New approaches are being devised to develop genetically modified (GM) plants suitable for changing climate, resistance to pests and herbicides and enhanced nutrition. Despite having great future promises, the general public and scientific community are concerned about the influence of growing GM plants on the ecosystem and human health. Herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops are among such GM crops which are considered to modify soil milieu by introducing herbicides compounds. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), we examined the effect of herbicides, glyphosate, glufosinate ammonium sulphate and imazethapyr ammonium, on soil fungal population in the HT canola fields over two consecutive growing seasons (2010 and 2011) at two different locations in Quebec, Canada. Our data indicate that although slight increase in copy number of fungal population was observed after glyphosate treatments, this change was statistically non-significant, even in case of glufosinate ammonium sulphate and imazethapyr ammonium. Thus herbicides in study had no adverse effects on fungal population.