<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Field Testing</b></p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">Field trials were conducted at 17 locations during 2005 to thoroughly evaluate phenotypic, agronomic and ecological interactions of MON89788 and compare these to A3244, the conventional parental line, and other commercially available soybeans. These 17 locations provided a diverse range of environmental and agronomic conditions representative of the majority of commercial soybean production regions in the US. Plant growth stage was assessed several times during the growing season and observational data on the presence of various biotic and abiotic stresses, together with the response of the lines to these stresses was recorded.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">A total of 11 different phenotypic characters was evaluated and the only significant difference detected in across-site analyses was a reduced height for MON89788 compared to A3244. The difference falls within the range of values observed for commercial soybean varieties. No differences were observed in susceptibility to pests and diseases, neither were there any differences observed in numbers of beneficial insects and spiders collected from the sites. Seed dormancy and germination characteristics were determined across a range of conditions with seed produced during the 2005 trials at three different locations.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Outcrossing</b></p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">Gene introgression from transformed soybean line MON89788 is considered as extremely unlikely as there are no relatives of cultivated soybean in the continental United States and soybean plants are almost completely self-pollinated. Furthermore, the reproductive characteristics such as pollen production and viability were unchanged by the genetic modification resulting in MON89788.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">Cultivated soybean, <i>Glycine max</i>, naturally hybridizes with the wild annual species <i>G. soja</i>. However, <i>G. soja</i> is only found naturally occurring in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the former USSR, and is not naturalized in North America, although it may possibly be grown in research plots. It was concluded that the potential for transfer of the glyphosate tolerance trait from the transgenic line to soybean relatives through gene flow was negligible in managed ecosystems, and that there was no potential for transfer to wild species in continental United States.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Weediness Potential</b></p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">No competitive advantage was conferred to MON89788, other than that conferred by resistance to glyphosate herbicide. The only phenotypic difference between MON89788 and the parental line was a slightly decreased plant height, which was within the range of commercial soybean was not expected to result in an increase in weediness potential. Resistance to glyphosate-containing herbicides will not, in itself, render soybean weedy or invasive of natural habitats since none of the reproductive or growth characteristics were modified. In the unlikely event of the formation of a herbicide tolerant hybrid, there would be no competitive advantage conferred on any hybrid progeny in the absence of sustained glyphosate use. The glyphosate-tolerant plant could easily be controlled by mechanical means or by using herbicides that are not based on glyphosate. Cultivated soybean does not exhibit any weedy characteristics in the United States, although related species are reported as weeds in Japan and China. It was concluded that soybean line MON89788 had no altered weed of invasiveness potential compared to commercial soybean varieties.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Secondary and Non-Target Adverse Effects</b></p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">Field observations of line MON89788 revealed no effects on pest or beneficial insects and spiders, suggesting that the levels of CP4 EPSPS in the transgenic plant tissues were not toxic to arthropods. The novel protein CP4 EPSPS did not result in altered toxicity or allergenicity properties as demonstrated from studies including the acute oral mouse gavage study, the digestive fate study, and the fact that homologous EPSPS proteins are ubiquitous in nature and common in plants, fungi and microbes. Furthermore, the high specificity of the enzyme for its substrates makes it unlikely that the introduced enzyme would metabolize endogenous substrates to produce compounds toxic to beneficial organisms. It was determined that the genetically modified soybean line MON89788 did not have a significant adverse impact on organisms beneficial to plants or agriculture, or on nontarget organisms, and was not expected to impact on threatened or endangered species.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Impact on Biodiversity</b></p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">Analysis of available information indicates that MON 89788 exhibits no traits that would cause increased weediness, that its unconfined cultivation should not lead to increased weediness of other sexually compatible relatives (of which there are none in the United States), and it is likely to have no effect on non-target organisms common to the agricultural ecosystem or threatened or endangered species recognized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Based on this analysis, there is no apparent potential for significant impact to biodiversity.</p>
