The maize line NK603 was produced by transforming the nuclear genome of a conventional maize line by means of the biolistic technique, based on the use of a gene ‘gun’ bombarding micro-particles coated with the DNA fragments to be transferred.
The maize line NK603 contains restriction fragments of the plasmid vector PV-ZMGT32 and the cp4 epsps gene. The expression of this gene produces the CP4 EPSPS enzyme synthase which is not inhibited by glyphosate. As a consequence, the GM plant acquires the ability to tolerate glyphosate- based herbicides