Worldwide patent trend analysis of herbicide-resistant genes

In 2019, worldwide cultivation of herbicide-resistant crops covered 166.6 million hectares and 88% of the global genetically modified (GM) crop area. Since the introduction of soybeans that are resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, a 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate (EPSP) synthase inhibitors, many farmers have repeatedly used the glyphosate herbicide in crops such as corn, cotton, and rice, and weeds have now been found to resist it. The appearance of weeds, resistant to EPSP synthase (EPSPS) inhibitors, acetolactate synthase (ALS), synthetic auxins, and photosystem II(PSII) inhibitors, have caused farming difficulties. Therefore, we have taken a genetic approach to herbicide resistance as a developing method in these GM crops. Patients from five major countries, including the United States of America (US), China (CN), Europe (EP), Japan (JP), and Korea (KR), with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) are being searched, the trend on the herbicide resistance transgenes including EPSPS, glyphosate oxidase (GOX), glyphosate-N-acetyltransferase (GAT), glyphosate decarboxylase, phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT), dicamba monooxygenase (DMO), aryloxyalkanoate dioxygenase (AAD), 2,4-D monooxygenase, acetolactate synthase (ALS), acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS), photosystem II protein D1, cytochrome P450, hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD), bromoxynil nitrylase (BXN) and applied crops including soybean, canola, cotton, corn, wheat, carnation, rice, tobacco, tomato are analyzed separately. Multinational conglomerates such as Monsanto, Dow, BASF and Bayer are concentrating and maintaining their influence on the development of soybean and corn using genes such as EPSPS, AHAS and HPPD. Therefore, in the case of other developers, it would be better to develop other crops to which other genes such as P450, BOX, and D1 are applied.