Construction of a Super Plasmid with 10 Targets GM Crop Detection

Standard reference molecules are important in the detection of GM crops and products. Thus, reference molecules should also advance hand in hand with the fast progress in the development of biotech crop. Xiumin Wand from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, together with other scientists, developed a reference plasmid with ten targets from GM soybean, maize, and cotton based on another plasmid (pTLE8) which has eight targets only from GM soybean and cotton.

The research team fused three target segments of the Bt176 event-specific 3'junction (Bt176G3'), MON810 event-specific 3-junction (MON810G3') and the endogenous maize Hmg genes, into 890 bp fragment through overlap extension polymerase chain reaction (PCR). They replaced the CP4 EPSPS gene in the plasmid pTLE8 with the fusion fragment, producing a new plasmid labeled as pTLH10 with ten target genes from GM soybean, maize, and cotton. Analysis of the new plasmid's efficiency showed that it can be used to identify GM maize, and would be useful for developing identification management for various GM crops components.

Read more about the study at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147619X12001059.