The innovation - herbicide tolerant sugarbeet and a new active ingredient

Classically bred herbicide tolerant sugarbeet varieties and accordingly the introduction of a new mode of action in sugarbeet weed control are the innovation of CONVISO^® SMART.

Those achievements accomplished by KWS and Bayer are the door opener for a new weed control strategy in sugarbeet. Best crop safety of the herbicide tolerant beets provide a more flexible application and the broad range herbicide delivers a high performance even in situations with hard to fight weeds (e.g. Aethusa)

Based on the backbone of the new system – the herbicide tolerant sugarbeet – a new herbicide with new active ingredients could be introduced in sugarbeet. This is an important achievement in a comparatively small market.
Dr. Andreas Loock - Sugarbeet Breeder at KWS

Herbicide tolerance – how does it work?

Sometimes a spontaneous natural alteration of the enzyme occurs. KWS was able to identify out of 1.5 billon individuals one single naturally herbicide tolerant individual, which formed the basis for the development of the new system. The naturally altered enzyme is involved in the biosynthesis of essential amino acids a plant needs to grow.

Sugarbeet plants with this spontaneously changed enzyme were specifically selected and used for further breeding to develop SMART KWS varieties.

In beets with the tolerant enzyme CONVISO^® ONE the herbicide cannot bind to the enzyme because of this alteration but the substrate still can and the sugar beet will continue to grow.

The enzymes of the weeds do not have this alteration, that’s why CONVISO^® ONE is able to bind to the enzyme, which blocks the substrate from binding to the enzyme and will cause the plant to die.

The innovation - herbicide tolerant sugarbeet and a new active ingredient

Herbicide tolerance – how does it work?

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