While 2,4-D is an old herbicide, there's actually a huge knowledge gap that researchers like AHRI’s Dr Danica Goggin are trying hard to fill in a bid to find ways to overcome resistance to this herbicide group in weeds like wild radish.In her research, Danica identified a very plausible resistance mechanism in two wild radish populations. She then went on to test the translocation theory in another nine 2,4-D resistant populations of wild radish from WA.Danica characterised the resistance profile of the 11 resistant populations to find that resistance to 2,4-D and dicamba appears to be capped.Looking more closely at these 11 resistant populations also revealed that while all 2,4-D resistant populations were also resistant to dicamba, the level of resistance to the two herbicides varied.This suggests there’s no consistent cross-resistance to these two auxinic herbicides within a population.Conducting the same experiment with the radioactive 2,4-D applied to the leaves, Danica also found that translocation varied enormously both between and within resistant populations.In fact, several of the resistant populations translocated 2,4-D just as efficiently as susceptible populations.So, what’s going on?This research proved that wild radish has other, more complex mechanisms at its disposal to avoid the effects of excessive free radical production following exposure to phenoxy herbicides.To find out more, take a listen and also read the AHRI insight here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/digging-deep-into-24-d-resistance/!
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