An ABCC-type transporter endowing glyphosate resistance in plants

Significance Glyphosate is the world’s dominantly used herbicide to control weedy plant species in a wide range of situations, especially in global field crops of soybean, maize, canola, and cotton with genetically engineered glyphosate resistance. Persistent glyphosate selection has led to worldwide evolution of glyphosate-resistant weeds. Several biochemical and physiological mechanisms have been identified that endow glyphosate resistance. To be toxic to plants, glyphosate must be present in the cytoplasm, and thus mechanisms reducing the cytoplasmic glyphosate to a sublethal level could confer resistance. Here, we provide evidence of a plant ABC transporter (ABCC8) that likely serves as a plasma membrane glyphosate exporter, lowering the cytoplasmic glyphosate level and thereby endowing glyphosate resistance.