Sunflower is an important oilseed crop. Typically, new cultivars with improved agronomic traits are developed through conventional breeding program. Here, we describe a method of sunflower embryo rescue to accelerate trait introduction into plants. Further, weeds are a significant issue for the sunflower crop. However, there are not many selective herbicides for sunflower. Here, using the embryo rescue methodology, we further describe in vitro herbicidal section methodologies.

Provided are a mutant HPPD polypeptide having high resistance to a herbicide and an encoding gene thereof, and an application thereof in an improved plant. The amino acid at position 282 of the mutant HPPD polypeptide is mutated from arginine to serine at a wild-type HPPD polypeptide. In addition, the mutant HPPD polypeptide further comprises an amino acid at position 349 that is mutated from glutamic acid to lysine, and/or an amino acid at position 156 that is mutated from alanine to valine. The mutated HPPD polypeptide can be used for cultivating plants having resistance to a herbicide having HPPD inhibition.

Markers associated with increased dicamba tolerance in soybeans are provided herein. Also provided are methods to identify plants having said markers and breeding methods to introduce said markers into other soybean plants, as well as methods for producing soybean plants having increased dicamba tolerance.

Embodiments of the present disclosure pertain to modified plants or seeds that contain a mutated gene. The mutated gene includes, without limitation, a pic30 mutant, a mutant homolog of pic30, and combinations thereof. The modified plant or seed is resistant to at least one herbicide, such as picloram. The modified plant or seed may also be resistant to one or more sources of environmental stress, such as drought, plant pathogenesis, biotic stress, and abiotic stress. Additional embodiments of the present disclosure pertain to methods of controlling the growth of weeds in a field by applying at least one herbicide to the field that includes the aforementioned modified plants or seeds. Additional embodiments of the present disclosure pertain to methods of developing the aforementioned modified plants or seeds by introducing one or more of the aforementioned mutated genes to a plant or seed.

The invention provides fertility restorer Brassica napus plants, plant material and seeds, characterized in that these products harbor a specific introgression fragment of the Ogura fertility restorer at the end of chromosome N10. Tools are also provided which allow detection of the fertility restorer.

Inbred corn line, designated IV19307M1, is disclosed. The disclosure relates to the seeds of inbred corn line IV19307M1, to the plants and plant parts of inbred corn line IV19307M1 and to methods for producing a corn plant, either inbred or hybrid, by crossing inbred corn line IV19307M1 with itself or another corn line. The disclosure also relates to products produced from the seeds, plants, or parts thereof, of inbred corn line IV19307M1 and/or of the hybrids produced using the inbred as a parent. The disclosure further relates to methods for producing a corn plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic plants produced by that method and to methods for producing other corn lines derived from inbred corn line IV19307M1.

Provided are improved herbicide tolerant Beta vulgaris, particularly improved sugar beet plants, with increased yield performance, while maintaining optimal and agronomically relevant herbicide tolerance, wherein the large and small subunits of the herbicide tolerance acetolactate synthase enzyme are optimally fitted. Further provided are markers for identifying such improved herbicide tolerant Beta vulgaris plants, as well methods for obtaining and identifying such improved herbicide tolerant Beta vulgaris plants.

Rice is described that is tolerant/resistant to herbicides, for example, ACCase inhibitors, and HPPD inhibitors, or both. For ACCase inhibitors, 2 different chromosome regions act synergistically in providing resistance/tolerance to the same herbicide class. Use of the herbicide resistant/tolerant rice for weed control and methods of producing tolerant/resistant rice are also disclosed.

Methods are provided for hybrid seed production using 3-phyletic crosses between female, maintainer and male, particularly restorer lines, wherein the trait is introduced in the female line only at the stage of basic seed production via crossing of the female line with a maintainer line containing the gene or genes encoding the trait in homozygous state.

The present invention relates to a non-transgenic sunflower plant comprising a mutated protoporphyrinogen IX oxidase (PPO) gene encoding a mutated sunflower protoporphyrinogen IX oxidase. The present invention further relates to a method of weed control at a plant cultivation site, comprising providing the plant of the present invention and applying to said site an effective amount of a PPO inhibiting herbicide. Further encompassed by the present invention is a method for producing sunflower oil.