Primers and probes were developed for the element-specific detection of cry1A.105 and cry2Ab2 genes, based on their DNA sequence as present in GM maize MON89034. Cry genes are present in many genetically modified (GM) plants and they are important targets for developing GMO element-specific detection methods. Element-specific methods can be of use to screen for the presence of GMOs in food and feed supply chains. Moreover, a combination of GMO elements may indicate the potential presence of unapproved GMOs (UGMs). Primer-probe combinations were evaluated in terms of specificity, efficiency and limit of detection. Except for specificity, the complete experiment was performed in 9 PCR runs, on 9 different days and by testing 8 DNA concentrations. The results showed a high specificity and efficiency for cry1A.105 and cry2Ab2 detection. The limit of detection was between 0.05 and 0.01 ng DNA per PCR reaction for both assays. These data confirm the applicability of these new primer-probe combinations for element detection that can contribute to the screening for GM and UGM crops in food and feed samples.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00216-011-4875-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The genetically modified common bean Embrapa 5.1, developed by Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), is the first commercial GM plant produced in Latin America. It presents high resistance to the Bean golden mosaic virus. In this work, primers and probes targeting a taxon-specific reference DNA sequence for the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and a construct-specific DNA sequence of Embrapa 5.1 GM common bean were successfully developed. The primers and probes showed high specificity for the target detection. Both methods showed suitable efficiency and performance to be used as an endogenous target for detection of common bean DNA and for construct-specific detection of GM common bean Embrapa 5.1, respectively. Both real-time PCR assays proved to be valuable for future assessment of interlaboratory studies.

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