AgbioInvestor’s free-to-access service AgbioInvestor GM Monitor has identified the following GM trait approvals up to May 2024. 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.

KWS20-1 sugar beat (KWS20-1), developed by Bayer and KWS, has received cultivation approval in the USA.

KWS20-1 sugar beet was developed through the introduction of the CP4 epsps, DMO and pat genes, which confer glyphosate, dicamba and glufosinate herbicide tolerance respectively. KWS20-1 was developed through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of sugar beet breeding line 04E05B1DH05 with plasmid vector PV-BVHT527462, containing the desired genetic information and successful genetic transformation was then screened for using a selectable marker.

KWS20-1 sugar beet was first approved for both food/feed use and for cultivation in Canada in 2023. Before this, only glyphosate tolerance, under the Roundup Ready brand, or glufosinate tolerance, under the brands LibertyLink or InVigor, were approved for use in sugar beet. The DMO (dicamba monooxygenase) gene has been previously approved for use in dicamba-tolerant soybean (MON 87708), dicamba and glufosinate-tolerant cotton (MON 88701), dicamba and glufosinate-tolerant maize (MON 87419) and dicamba-tolerant canola (MON 94100).

GM sugar beet is currently only grown in the USA and Canada, with the USA first planting GM sugar beet in 2005 and Canada in 2010. In North America, 457.8 thousand hectares of GM sugar beet was planted, with the vast majority occurring in the USA.