Glyphosate retention, absorption and translocation with and without adjuvant were examined in Lolium rigidum and Conyza canadensis in greenhouse and laboratory settings to develop an understanding of the influence of the selected adjuvant on glyphosate activity. Tests on whole plants show that the dose of herbicide needed to reduce dry weight by 50% (GR₅₀) or plant survival (LD₅₀) decreases by mixing glyphosate and adjuvant to 22%–24% and 42%–44% for both populations of L. rigidum and C. canadensis, respectively. This improvement in efficacy could be attributed to the higher herbicide retention and lower contact angle of the glyphosate + adjuvant drops on the leaf surface compared to the glyphosate solution alone. Plants of both species treated with ¹⁴C-glyphosate + adjuvant absorbed more glyphosate compared to non-adjuvant addition. Furthermore, the movement of the herbicide through the plant was faster and greater with the adjuvant. Our results reveal that the use of adjuvants improves the effectiveness of glyphosate in two of the most important weeds in agricultural crops in Mediterranean countries.

Six Johnsongrass populations suspected of being glyphosate resistant were collected from railways and freeways near Cordoba (SW Spain), where glyphosate is the main weed control tool. The 50% reduction in shoot fresh weight (GR₅₀) values obtained for these six populations ranged from 550.4 to 1169 g ae ha⁻¹, which were 4.2 to 9 times greater than the value obtained for the susceptible population. Glyphosate was equally metabolized to the same extent in both resistant and susceptible populations, with no significant differences in either 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) inhibition or basal activity. No amino acid substitutions were observed in any of the resistant populations. Slight but significant differences in glyphosate penetration were observed among some but not all of the resistant populations and for the times of incubation assayed, although these differences were not considered further. The proposed primary mechanism of resistance in these six glyphosate-resistant Johnsongrass populations is reduced herbicide translocation, because the amount of glyphosate that translocated from treated leaves to shoots and roots in the susceptible population was double that observed in the resistant populations. As glyphosate multiple resistance due to more than one mechanism is not uncommon, this is the first time that glyphosate-resistant Johnsongrass populations have been fully described for all known mechanisms.

Amaranthus hybridus is one of the main weed species in Córdoba, Argentina. Until recently, this weed was effectively controlled with recurrent use of glyphosate. However, a population exhibiting multiple resistance (MR2) to glyphosate and imazamox appeared in a glyphosate resistant (GR) soybean field, with levels of resistance up to 93 and 38-fold higher to glyphosate and imazamox, respectively compared to the susceptible (S) population. In addition to imidazolinones, MR2 plants showed high resistance levels to sulfonylamino-carbonyl (thio) benzoates and moderate resistance to sulfonylureas and triazolopyrimidines. Multiple amino acid substitutions were found in both target genes, acetolactate synthase (ALS) and 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS), responsible for conferring high herbicides resistance levels in this A. hybridus population. In the case of EPSPS, the triple amino acid substitution TAP-IVS was found. In addition, MR2 plants also showed increased EPSPS gene expression compared to susceptible plants. A Ser653Asn substitution was found in the ALS sequence of MR2, explaining the pattern of cross-resistance to the ALS-inhibitor herbicide families found at the ALS enzyme activity level. No other mutations were found in other conserved domains of the ALS gene. This is the first report worldwide of the target site resistance mechanisms to glyphosate and ALS inhibitors in multiple herbicide resistance Amaranthus hybridus.

Glyphosate is a cheap herbicide that has been used to control a wide range of weeds (4–6 times/year) in citrus groves of the Gulf of Mexico; however, its excessive use has selected for glyphosate-resistant weeds. We evaluated the efficacy and economic viability of 13 herbicide treatments (glyphosate combined with PRE- and/or POST-emergence herbicides and other alternative treatments), applied in tank-mixture or sequence, to control glyphosate-resistant weeds in two Persian lime groves (referred to as SM-I and SM-II) of the municipality of Acateno, Puebla, during two years (2014 and 2015). The SM-I and SM-II fields had 243 and 346 weeds/m², respectively, composed mainly of Bidens pilosa and Leptochloa virgata. Echinochloa colona was also frequent in SM-II. The glyphosate alone treatments (1080, 1440, or 1800 g ae ha⁻¹) presented control levels of the total weed population ranging from 64% to 85% at 15, 30, and 45 d after treatment (DAT) in both fields. Mixtures of glyphosate with grass herbicides such as fluazifop-p-butyl, sethoxydim, and clethodim efficiently controlled E. colona and L. virgata, but favored the regrowth of B. pilosa. The sequential applications of glyphosate + (bromacil + diuron) and glufosinate + oxyfluorfen controlled more than 85% the total weed community for more than 75 days. However, these treatments were between 360% and 390% more expensive (1.79 and 1.89 $/day ha⁻¹ of satisfactory weed control, respectively), compared to the representative treatment (glyphosate 1080 g ae ha⁻¹ = USD $29.0 ha⁻¹). In practical and economic terms, glufosinate alone was the best treatment controlling glyphosate resistant weeds maintaining control levels >80% for at least 60 DAT ($1.35/day ha⁻¹). The rest of the treatments, applied in tank-mix or in sequence with glyphosate, had similar or lower control levels (~70%) than glyphosate at 1080 g ae ha⁻¹. The adoption of glufosiante alone, glufosinate + oxyfluorfen or glyphosate + (bromacil + diuron) must consider the cost of satisfactory weed control per day, the period of weed control, as well as other factors associated with production costs to obtain an integrated weed management in the short and long term.

The occurrence of multiple herbicide resistant weeds has increased considerably in glyphosate-resistant soybean fields in Brazil; however, the mechanisms governing this resistance have not been studied. In its study, the target-site and nontarget-site mechanisms were characterized in an Eleusine indica population (R-15) with multiple resistance to the acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) inhibitors, glyphosate, imazamox, and paraquat. Absorption and translocation rates of ¹⁴C-diclofop-methyl¹⁴C-imazamox and ¹⁴C-glyphosate of the R-15 population were similar to those of a susceptible (S-15) population; however, the R-15 population translocated ∼38% less ¹⁴C-paraquat to the rest of plant and roots than the S-15 population. Furthermore, the R-15 plants metabolized (by P450 cytochrome) 55% and 88% more diclofop-methyl (conjugate) and imazamox (imazamox–OH and conjugate), respectively, than the S-15 plants. In addition, the Pro-106-Ser mutation was found in the EPSPS gene of this population. This report describes the first characterization of the resistance mechanisms in a multiple herbicide resistant weed from Brazil.