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Argentine government authorizes new transgenic corn

Plants are short, glyphosate tolerant and insect protected

24.06.2025 | 14:44 (UTC -3)

Cultivar Magazine

The Argentine Secretariat of Agriculture authorized, through resolutions 91/2025 and 92/2025, new events of corn genetically modified. The approved cultivars combine agronomic and biotechnological characteristics to face climate and phytosanitary challenges. The technicians concluded that the events do not pose risks to health or the environment.

The first authorized event combines five modifications: MON-87427-7, MON-948Ø4-4, MON-95379-3, SYN-IR162-4 and MON-88Ø17-3. The resulting corn has four main attributes. The plant is shorter in stature. It tolerates glyphosate-based herbicides. It is resistant to lepidopteran insects (such as Spodoptera frugiperda e Diatraea saccharalis). And it fights coleoptera (like Diabrotica speciosa).

The short stature comes from event MON-948Ø4-4, which uses RNA interference (miRNA GA20ox_SUP) to reduce gibberellin production. This results in more robust and stable plants.

Insect resistance is based on the proteins Cry1B.868, Cry1Da_7, Cry3Bb1 and Vip3Aa20. These toxins, derived from Bacillus thuringiensis, act on the digestive system of insects, causing cell death and elimination of the pest.

Tolerance to glyphosate is provided by CP4 EPSPS, an enzyme introduced in events MON-87427-7 and MON-88Ø17-3. This protein allows corn to continue producing essential amino acids even after herbicide application.

The second authorized corn accumulates three events: MON-87427-7, MON-948Ø4-4 and MON-ØØ6Ø3-6. It also exhibits short stature and tolerance to glyphosate, but does not include insect resistance genes.

Height control results, once again, from the suppression of the ZmGA20ox3 and ZmGA20ox5 genes via miRNA. Tolerance to the herbicide combines two expression patterns of the CP4 EPSPS protein. The MON-ØØ6Ø3-6 event expresses the enzyme in all plant tissues. MON-87427-7 prevents synthesis in male reproductive tissues. The combination of the two versions neutralizes the male sterility observed when glyphosate is applied at certain growth stages.