Glyphosate-resistant (GR) kochia is an increasing management concern in major cropping systems of the northwestern US. In 2014, we investigated four putative GR kochia accessions (designated as ALA, VAL, WIL, DB) collected from sugar beet fields in eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho to characterize the level of evolved glyphosate resistance and determine the relationship between the 5-enol-pyruvylshikimate-3-phospate synthase (EPSPS) gene copy number and level of glyphosate resistance. The EPSPS gene copy number was used as a molecular marker to detect GR kochia in subsequent surveys in 2015 and 2016. Based on LD₅₀ values from a whole-plant dose-response study, the four putative GR kochia populations were 2.0- to 9.6-fold more resistant to glyphosate than the glyphosate-susceptible (GS) accession. In an in vivo leafdisk shikimate assay, leaf disks of GS kochia plants treated with 100-µM glyphosate accumulated 2.4- to 4.0-fold higher amounts of shikimate than the GR plants. The four GR accessions had 2.7 to 9.1 relative EPSPS gene copies compared with the GS accession (<1 EPSPS gene copies), and there was a linear relationship between EPSPS gene copy number and glyphosate resistance level (LD₅₀ values). The 2015 and 2016 GR kochia survey results indicated that about half of the collected populations from sugar beet fields in eastern Oregon had developed resistance to glyphosate whereas only one population from the Idaho collection was confirmed glyphosate resistant. This is the first confirmation of GR kochia in sugar beet fields in eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho. Diversified weed control programs will be required to prevent further development and spread of GR kochia in sugar beet-based rotations in this region.

Nomenclature: Glyphosate; kochia, Kochia scoparia (L.) Schrad.; sugar beet, Beta vulgaris L.