Polynucleotide constructs having at least one transcriptional enhancer and encoding a modified rice EPSPS enzyme

An isolated polynucleotide comprising the following components in the 5′ to 3′ direction of transcription:

• (i) at least one transcriptional enhancer sequence, selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOS 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, and 51;
• (ii) a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOS 52, 53, and 54, which comprises the promoter from the rice EPSPS gene;
• (iii) the rice genomic sequence which encodes the rice EPSPS chloroplast transit peptide and encodes the rice EPSPS enzyme of SEQ ID NO 43;
• and
• (iv) a transcriptional terminator sequence;
• wherein the rice EPSPS coding sequence is modified in that a first position is mutated so that the residue at this position is Ile rather than Thr and a second position is mutated so that the residue at this position is Ser rather than Pro, the mutations being introduced into EPSPS sequences which comprise the following conserved region GNAGTAMRPLTAAV (SEQ ID NO 56) in the wild type enzyme (SEQ ID NO 43) such that modified sequence (SEQ ID NO 44) reads GNAGIAMRSLTAAV (SEQ ID NO 57).