Redroot pigweed (
Amaranthus retroflexus L.) is a
troublesome weed infesting soybean (
Glycine max
[L.] Merr.) productions in China. One redroot pigweed
population, collected from Heilongjiang (HLJ) Province,
China, was suspected to be resistant to thifensulfuronmethyl
and fomesafen. The other one redroot pigweed
population, collected from Shandong (SD) Province, was
susceptible. The study aimed to characterize the level of
thifensulfuron-methyl and fomesafen resistance using
HLJ population and identify the potential resistance
mechanisms to thifensulfuron-methyl. The sensitivity
to other herbicides with and without the same target site
was also evaluated. Acetolactate synthase (ALS) gene
sequencing revealed that Trp
574Leu or Ala
205Val amino
acid substitution were present in the HLJ population.
Whole-plant herbicide bioassays showed that, compared
with SD population, HLJ population displayed high level
of resistance to thifensulfuron-methyl and moderate
resistance to fomesafen. The 50% growth reduction
(GR
50) value of thifensulfuron-methyl with malathion
pretreatment was reduced by 23%, suggesting that
both target-site resistance and non-target-site resistance
mechanisms were present in thifensulfuron-methyl
resistance of redroot pigweed. Cross-resistant patterns
showed that the HLJ population evolved resistance
to pyrithiobac-sodium, pyroxsulam, imazethapyr and
fluoroglycofen, but susceptible to bentazone.