HERBICIDES – MECHANISMS AND MODE OF ACTION Edited by Mohammed Naguib Abd El-Ghany Hasaneen Herbicides – Mechanisms and Mode of Action Edited by Mohammed Naguib Abd El-Ghany Hasaneen Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2011 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. 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Used under license from Shutterstock.com First published December, 2011 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected] Herbicides – Mechanisms and Mode of Action, Edited by Mohammed Naguib Abd El-Ghany Hasaneen p. cm. ISBN 978-953-307-744-4 free online editions of InTech Books and Journals can be found at www.intechopen.com Contents Preface IX Part 1 Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms 1 Chapter 1 Molecular Mechanism of Action of Herbicides 3 Istvan Jablonkai Chapter 2 Immunosensors Based on Interdigitated Electrodes for the Detection and Quantification of Pesticides in Food 25 E. Valera and A Rodríguez Chapter 3 Laboratory Study to Investigate the Response of Cucumis sativus L. to Roundup and Basta Applied to the Rooting Medium 49 Elżbieta Sacała, Anna Demczuk and Edward Grzyś Chapter 4 Enantioselective Activity and Toxicity of Chiral Herbicides 63 Weiping Liu and Mengling Tang Part 2 Mode of Action 81 Chapter 5 Weed Resistance to Herbicides in the Czech Republic: History, Occurrence, Detection and Management 83 Kateřina Hamouzová, Jaroslav Salava, Josef Soukup, Daniela Chodová and Pavlína Košnarová Chapter 6 Use of Tebuthiuron to Restore Sand Shinnery Oak Grasslands of the Southern High Plains 103 David A. Haukos Chapter 7 The Use of Herbicides in Biotech Oilseed Rape Cultivation and in Generation of Transgenic Homozygous Plants of Winter Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.) 125 Teresa Cegielska-Taras and Tomasz Pniewski VI Contents Chapter 8 Gene Flow Between Conventional and Transgenic Soybean Pollinated by Honeybees 137 Wainer César Chiari, Maria Claudia Colla Ruvolo-Takasusuki, Emerson Dechechi Chambó, Carlos Arrabal Arias, Clara Beatriz Hoffmann-Campo and Vagner de Alencar Arnaut de Toledo Chapter 9 Herbicides and the Risk of Neurodegenerative Disease 153 Krithika Muthukumaran, Alyson J. Laframboise and Siyaram Pandey Chapter 10 Herbicides Persistence in Rice Paddy Water in Southern Brazil 183 Renato Zanella, Martha B. Adaime, Sandra C. Peixoto, Caroline do A. Friggi, Osmar D. Prestes, Sérgio L.O. Machado, Enio Marchesan, Luis A. Avila and Ednei G. Primel Preface In modern agriculture herbicides (chemicals harmful for weed and not for the crops) play a vital role in suppressing weed thereby promoting maximum utilization of costly inputs like fertilizers and water. Not all herbicides are synthetic since some were extracted from certain species such as Salvia sp. and Alinthus altissima. Selecting the right herbicide which will yield desired results with the least cost and residual problems is a challenge faced by those involved in farming and agricultural research and development. Understanding the physiology and biochemistry of various herbicidal actions will enable us to make the right management decisions at macro and micro-levels of farming. Weed control by herbicides e.g. ammonium-containing compounds, is largely due to the toxic action of the ammonium ion. Stonf (trifluralin) is a member of the dinitroaniline group of herbicides that are known to inhibit several physiological and biochemical mechanisms including photosynthesis, synthesis of RNA, protein and hormone transport. Trifluralin causes an increase in the nitrogen content of certain crops and has no effect on the protein content of other species. Herbicidal application causes various alterations in the enzyme activities both in vivo and in vitro, and hence interrupts with physiological and biochemical processes in the plant. Although this book is mainly concerned with mechanisms and mode of action of herbicides, it would not be complete without reference to the ways in which those compounds affect animals, insects and other plants. Such ecological aspects are therefore briefly included wherever applicable. Prof. Dr. Mohammed Naguib Abd El-Ghany Hasaneen Professor of Plant Physiology, Plant Department, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Egypt