Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2017
Greenhouse and laboratory experiments were conducted to determine if the synergistic injury to sulfonylurea-tolerant soybean (STS soybean) caused by applications of thifensulfuron plus imazethapyr involves an interaction between the herbicides at the ALS enzyme. In vitro ALS from STS soybean (Asgrow 3200) was 10 times more tolerant to thifensulfuron than ALS from non-STS soybean (Williams 82). In vivo ALS was 30% of maximum activity 6 HAT in STS soybean treated with 4.4 g ha−1 thifensulfuron, but 0% of maximum in similarly treated non-STS soybean. Increasing thifensulfuron from 4.4 to 141 g ha−1 did not increase in vivo ALS inhibition in STS soybean, indicating a highly resistant ALS isozyme. Both cultivars responded similarly to imazethapyr in terms of visual injury, in vitro ALS inhibition, and in vivo ALS inhibition. Soybean injury and in vivo ALS inhibition increased with imazethapyr rate in both cultivars. The relationship between imazethapyr inhibition of ALS in vivo and soybean injury was curvilinear. In vitro ALS assays revealed no synergistic interaction between thifensulfuron and imazethapyr at the enzyme level. In vivo ALS activity was reduced to 7 and 10% of controls 24 and 48 HAT by the tank mixture compared to 56 and 84% for thifensulfuron alone and 20 and 28% for imazethapyr alone. These data show that the synergistic increase in soybean injury caused by tank mixing thifensulfuron with imazethapyr results from the cumulative inhibition of ALS, not a synergistic inhibition of the enzyme.