“Roundup Ready” soybeans are a type of genetically modified (GM) crop. Roundup is a brand of popular weed killer. Roundup is sprayed on unwanted plants in order to kill the plants. This is good for killing weeds that might take up space in the garden. However, farmers need to keep their crops safe from the weed killer. Farmers use Roundup to kill other weeds that compete with their crops for water, nutrients, and light. Roundup weed killer is toxic to nearly all plants, not just weeds. If you are using it in your garden, you need to shield any other plants you want to grow from the spray.

The Roundup Ready soybeans have a special trait that allows farmers to use Roundup without fear of harming their crops. Roundup Ready soybeans have been engineered so that they cannot be harmed by Roundup.

Roundup kills plants by blocking a protein is critical for the survival of the plant. The Roundup Ready soybeans are able to grow when sprayed by Roundup because they carry a modified version of a gene for this protein. This modified version of the gene originally comes from a bacteria. By putting this bacteria gene into a soybean plant, scientists have caused the Roundup Ready soybeans to make a different protein than other plants. This different protein cannot be blocked by Roundup weed killer, which means that the Roundup Ready soybeans are immune to Roundup.

Genetic engineering allowed humans to put the modified gene into the soybeans.

Because of this special gene, farmers growing Roundup Ready soybeans can spray their fields with weed killer and not harm the soybean plants.

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