As I said, there's no biomarker for 'weed' such that one can poison just the competition, but a something like a 'Roundup Ready' GMO crop can to be used to do the inverse
I'm not sure how this statement is contrary to what I've written
> A native plant in one context is an exotic pest in another.
Emphasis added.
Edit: Just in case it doesn't seem that way, I'm pro-conservation, and in the context of conservation of a particular ecosystem plants can be weeds. It's still a social construct. e.g., if a bird poops a plant from overseas 1000 years ago this is just the new ecosystem
Plants are also known to be hostile to other plants. For example, leaves of walnut trees contain natural herbicides that stop other trees from growing and become competition. This is just another example of such behavior.
Correct, we want something that selectively kills specific types of plants that aren't desired in agricultural contexts. We have lots of ways of killing plants.
The original paper is pretty clear that they're talking about killing plants, not just weeds, but that it might be useful for targeting weeds with it.[1]
Roundup, which they mention, is another example. It kills anything leafy (that isn't Roundup ready), but people call it a weed killer anyway.
The malaria parasite Plasmodium has an organelle called the apicoplast which is biologically very similar to the chloroplast of plants (and is believed to share an evolutionary history with it). So it makes sense biologically that an anti-malarial drug could also work against plants if the apicoplast is affected.
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[ 1.4 ms ] story [ 59.6 ms ] thread> A native plant in one context is an exotic pest in another.
Emphasis added.
Edit: Just in case it doesn't seem that way, I'm pro-conservation, and in the context of conservation of a particular ecosystem plants can be weeds. It's still a social construct. e.g., if a bird poops a plant from overseas 1000 years ago this is just the new ecosystem
Roundup, which they mention, is another example. It kills anything leafy (that isn't Roundup ready), but people call it a weed killer anyway.
Can't believe the original comment was flagged.
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45871
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apicoplast