AgbioInvestor’s free-to access service AgbioInvestor GM Monitor has identified the following GM trait approvals up to March 2023. Expanded details on these recently approved traits, as well as for approvals dating back as far as 1992, can be found on AgbioInvestor’s GM Monitor website.

Dicamba-tolerant canola utilising the genetic event MON 94100 (MON-941ØØ-2) has received EU import approval for food and feed use. The trait was developed by Bayer, the leading global seed company following its acquisition of Monsanto in 2018, but has not yet been commercialised. Despite having received import approval from seven countries Mon 94100 is yet to receive cultivation approval.

MON 94100 was developed through agrobacterium-mediated transformation of spring canola variety 65307, to express the dmo gene and produce the enzyme dicamba monoxygenase (DMO). DMO inactivates dicamba, providing herbicide tolerance, before it accumulates to toxic levels within the plant.

Dicamba was first registered in 1967 and is a member of the chlorophenoxy family of chemicals. Varieties of canola which possess MON 94100 will be tolerant to the herbicidal action of dicamba while surrounding weeds will be susceptible and die when the herbicide is applied. Dicamba induces death in susceptible plants through the promotion of abnormal cell growth of meristematic cells and the resulting blockage of phloem vascular tissue. Dicamba tolerance in commercial agriculture is achieved through the expression of the dicamba monooxygenase (DMO) enzyme.

The first instance of MON 94100 being granted approval for import for food/feed use was in 2021, when it gained approval in Canada, followed by Australia & New Zealand later the same year. In 2022 four more countries granted the trait import approval; Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and the USA. This latest import approval, for its food/feed use in the EU, allows feed, foods (or food ingredients) and products containing, consisting of or produced from genetically modified canola MON 94100 to be imported into any of the 27 member states that form the economic union.

Dicamba tolerance traits have been commercialised in cotton and soybean crops prior to canola. The MON 87708 and MON 88701 genetic events are used in soybean and cotton respectively and in North America, in 2021, dicamba tolerant crops covered a total of 21.8 million hectares. MON 87708 has been approved for cultivation in six countries, the first of which were Canada and Australia & New Zealand in 2012, followed by the USA, Brazil and Uruguay, and has received import approval in 19 countries. The MON 88701 genetic event, is a stacked gene variety used in cotton that utilises more than one mode of action for herbicide tolerance, and has been authorised for cultivation in five countries; Australia & New Zealand, the USA, Brazil and most recently China (see AgbioNews Jan 19, 2023), and has import approvals in 11 countries.