A double-edged rice paddy herbicide

Plant Science A useful herbicide kills weeds but spares the crop of interest. For many rice paddies, the herbicide benzobicyclon (BBC) serves this purpose. But some rice strains are susceptible to BBC, which diminishes its value in weed control. Maeda et al. uncovered the genetic cause controlling the response to the herbicide: resistant rice cultivars have an oxidase that detoxifies BBC herbicides. Susceptible rice varieties carried genetic mutations that disabled the oxidase. The gene HPPD INHIBITOR SENSITIVE 1 , which encodes the oxidase, may be useful for developing BBC-resistant crops. Science , this issue p. [393][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aax0379