Table 4.

Characteristics and intended effects of the events stacked in maize MON 87427 ×MON 89034 × NK603

Event	Protein	Donor organism and biological function	Intended effects in GM plant
MON 87427	CP4 EPSPS	Based on a gene from Agrobacterium strain CP4. 5‐enolpyruvylshikimate‐3‐phosphate synthase (EPSPS) is an enzyme involved in the shikimic acid pathway for aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in plants and microorganisms (Herrmann, 1995)	Expression of the bacterial CP4 EPSPS protein in maize MON 87427 confers tolerance to glyphosate‐containing herbicides as it has lower affinity towards glyphosate than the plant endogenous enzyme
MON 89034	Cry1A.105 Cry2Ab2	Based on a gene from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki and subsp. aizawai. B. thuringiensis is an insect pathogen; its insecticidal activity is attributed to the expression of crystal protein (cry) genes (Schnepf et al., 1998) Based on a gene from B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki. B. thuringiensis is an insect pathogen; its insecticidal activity is attributed to the expression of crystal protein (cry) genes	Event MON 89034 expresses a modified Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1A‐type protein with overall amino acid sequence identity of 93.4%, 90% and 76.7% to the Cry1Ac, Cry1Ab and Cry1F, respectively. Cry1A.105 is a protein toxic to certain lepidopteran larvae feeding on maize Event MON 89034 expresses also the Cry2Ab2, a protein toxic to certain lepidopteran larvae feeding on maize
NK603	CP4 EPSPS	Based on a gene from Agrobacterium strain CP4. 5‐enolpyruvylshikimate‐3‐phosphate synthase (EPSPS) is an enzyme involved in the shikimic acid pathway for aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in plants and microorganisms	The bacterial CP4 EPSPS protein expressed in maize NK603 confers tolerance to glyphosate‐containing herbicides as it has lower affinity towards glyphosate than the plant endogenous enzyme
	CP4 EPSPS L214P	Donor organism: Agrobacterium sp. strain CP4. 5‐enopyruvylshikimate‐3‐phosphate synthase (EPSPS) is an enzyme involved in the shikimic acid pathway for aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in plants and microorganisms	Event NK603 expresses also CP4 EPSPS L214P – this variant, compared to the CP4 EPSPS protein, contains a single amino acid substitution from leucine to proline at position 214. The two CP4 EPSPS protein variants are structurally and functionally equivalent