ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Systematics and Evolution
This article is part of the Research TopicEvolution and Adaptive Implications of Intragenomic Elements in Plant GenomesView all 3 articles
Continued Overexpression of EPSPS Transgene Enhances Fitness in Multigeneration Crop−Wild Rice Hybrids and Its Long-term Environmental Impact
Provisionally accepted
Xiao-Qi Jiang1,2
Yang Cao1,2
Xupeng Wang1,2Li-Li Chang1,2
Hua Kong1,2Yu-Liang Zhang1,2Xia Zhou1,2
Baorong Lu3*- 1Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Haikou, China
- 2Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences Sanya Research Institute, Sanya, China
- 3Fudan University School of Life Sciences, Shanghai, China
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Transgene flow from genetically engineered (GE) crops to their wild relatives has aroused worldwide biosafety concerns. Environmental impact caused by transgene flow from GE glyphosate herbicide-tolerant rice overexpressing the endogenous EPSPS (5-enolpyruvyshikimate-3-phosphate synthase) transgene to its wild rice becomes a great concern. This is owning to the significantly increased fitness conferred by the transgene in crop−wild hybrids. Whether the increased fitness maintains consistently in the advanced generations of the hybrid progenies is unclear and needs science-based evaluation. Such evaluation plays an essential role in understanding potential environmental impact, caused particularly by the EPSPS transgene. We therefore examined the relative expression quantities (REQ) of the EPSPS (trans)gene and fitness-related traits in advanced F3-F5 hybrid lineages derived from crosses between GE EPSPS rice (Oryza sativa) and two wild rice (Oryza rufipogon) populations in common-garden experiments. Our results showed that the crop−wild rice hybrid lineages containing the transgene have significantly higher REQ of EPSPS (trans)gene and increased values of the fitness-related traits, including number of tillers, panicles, and seeds per plant. In addition, the fitness benefit, conferred by overexpressing the EPSPS transgene, presented consistently in GE F3-F5 hybrid lineages. Consequently, overexpression of the rice endogenous EPSPS transgene may consistently increase the fitness of crop−wild rice hybrid progenies in advanced generations, which may promote the persistence and spread of the transgene in wild rice populations. Thus, to assess the long-term environment impact caused by outflow of the glyphosate-tolerance EPSPS transgene from GE rice should be seriously considered.
Keywords: advanced hybrid generation, Environmental biosafety, fitnessbenefit, Oryza rufipogon, Risk Assessment, transgene flow
Received: 18 Sep 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Jiang, Cao, Wang, Chang, Kong, Zhang, Zhou and Lu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Baorong Lu
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