Quick Facts about YieldGard® VT

YieldGard VT Rootworm/RR2 is the brand name for Monsanto's new event MON88017. This event combines cry3Bb Bt protein for rootworm with EPSPS CP4 protein for glyphosate tolerance. These are the same proteins used in YieldGard RW and Roundup Ready Corn 2.

No.

Several products, including Herculex® I and Herculex RW^, contain molecular stacks of two or more genes. Herculex I, launched in 2003, is a stack of a cry1F gene and the PAT gene which confers tolerance to Liberty® herbicide. Herculex RW combines three genes including two Bt rootworm genes (cry34Ab1 and cry35Ab1) and the PAT gene for Liberty tolerance (LibertyLink® gene).

Both YieldGard VT and YieldGard RW use an enhanced 35s promoter from cauliflower mosaic virus.

Roundup Ready Corn 2 uses two different promoters (rice actin 1 and enhanced 35s promoter from CaMV) to express the EPSPS protein. YieldGard VT uses only 1 promoter, rice actin 1, to express EPSPS.

No. The new VT triple stack contains MON88017 and MON810 — the same genes as YieldGard Plus^.

This is a method where a bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens or a related strain, transfers the genes of interest into cells of the crop plant. This method has been widely used to transform dicot plants like cotton, canola, potatoes and sugarbeets. Some people call it “agro technology.”

No.

Pioneer was one of the first to license agro technology for corn from a company called Japan Tobacco and has since developed and patented our own improvements to the technology. Herculex RW, commercialized in 2006, was developed by Pioneer and Dow AgroSciences using Agrobacterium transformation.

Agrobacterium transformation works well for dicots like soybeans, but has been more difficult to use until recently with monocots like corn. Japan Tobacco made the breakthrough for corn and patented its technology.

Biolistic or particle bombardment using a gene gun has been used successfully to create numerous transgenic corn and soybean events that are in the market today.

One potential advantage of Agrobacterium transformation is a higher production of events that have a single, intact copy of the genes of interest. However, both methods still require screening tens if not hundreds of events to find the best event that both optimally expresses the genes of interest and delivers high yielding, agronomically sound products.