The substantive equivalence of transgenic (Bt and Chi) and non-transgenic cotton based on metabolite profiles

Abstract

Compositional studies comparing transgenic with non-transgenic counterpart plants are almost universally required by governmental regulatory bodies. In the present study, two T(2) transgenic cotton lines containing chitinase (Line 11/57) and Bt lines (Line 61) were compared with non-transgenic counterpart. To do this, biochemical characteristics of leaves and seeds, including amino acids, fatty acids, carbohydrates, anions, and cations contents of the studied lines were analyzed using GC/MS, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and ion chromatography (IC) analyzers, respectively. polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Western blot analyses confirmed the presence and expression of Chi and Bt genes in the studied transgenic lines. Although, compositional analysis of leaves contents confirmed no significant differences between transgenic and non-transgenic counterpart lines, but it was shown that glucose content of chitinase lines, fructose content of transgenic lines (Bt and chitinase) and asparagine and glutamine of chitinase lines were significantly higher than the non-transgenic counterpart plants. Both the transgenic lines (Bt and chitinase) showed significant decrease in the amounts of sodium in comparison to the non-transgenic counterpart plants. The experiments on the seeds showed that histidine, isoleucine, leucine, and phenylalanine contents of all transgenic and non-transgenic lines were the same, whereas other amino acids were significantly increased in the transgenic lines. Surprisingly, it was observed that the concentrations of stearic acid, myristic acid, oleic acid, and linoleic acid in the chitinase line were significantly different than those of non-transgenic counterpart plants, but these components were the same in both Bt line and its non-transgenic counterpart. It seems that more changes observed in the seed contents than leaves is via this point that seeds are known as metabolites storage organs, so they show greater changes in the metabolites contents comparing to the leaves.

Comparative Proteomics of Leaves from Phytase-Transgenic Maize and Its Non-transgenic Isogenic Variety

“…However, in this study, we did not detect the intended protein, which was possibly due to both the low expression of the target gene and the limited accumulation of the target protein in PT leaves. In fact, in previous studies, the target protein was not detected at all (Zolla et al, 2008 ; Gong et al, 2012 ; Modirroosta et al, 2014 ). We had measured the Bt toxin protein content only 0.31 pg/g in cotton leaves by ELISA (Wang et al, 2015 ).…”

“…In fact, such unintended effects are not unique to GM plants, they are also widely observed during conventional plant breeding (Ladics et al, 2015 ). GMCs do not show greatly altered proteomes compared with their natural genetic variats or with species obtained through conventional genetic breeding (Modirroosta et al, 2014 ; Vidal et al, 2015 ).…”

Comparative proteomics of Bt-transgenic and non-transgenic cotton leaves

“…The metabolic variations between the transgenic plant and its non-transgenic line might be due to the position effect of gene insertion [ 32 ]. According to the KEGG analysis, the present results revealed that DEPs between WT and BT lines mainly involved in photosynthetic organisms to take part into carbon fixation, photosynthesis, glyoxylate and dicarboxylate, oxidative phosphorylation, pentose phosphate pathway, and so on (Additional files 4 and 5 ).…”

“…The global cultivated area of GM cotton was reaching 23.9 million hectares in 2013. Previous studies mainly focused on detecting the biochemical compounds differences between transgenic and non-transgenic cotton, including amino acids fatty acids, carbohydrate content [ 32 ]. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was also used to detect the chemical and conformational changes between transgenic cotton seeds and their non-transgenic counterparts, and found both the indigenous and exogenous proteins structural changes in genetically modified organism (GMO) [ 33 ].…”

Soil Ecological Safety Evaluation for Bivalent Transgenic Cotton Plants: Root Exudates Versus Soil Enzyme Activities and Soil Microbial Diversity

“…However, the fungal stability index was increased with the increasing concentration of root exudates of transgenic cotton, indicating the fungal population and community in the soil was not affected by the much higher concentration of root exudates of transgenic cotton. http 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 …”