New Detection Method for Bt Rice Events in China

GM rice KMD1, TT51-1, and KF6 are the most popular transgenic Bt rice in China. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the most sensitive and specific GM detection method, however it requires expensive equipment and trained personnel for its use. Thus, Xiaoyun Chen from Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences together with other scientists developed a visual and rapid loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique to amplify three GM rice event-specific junction sequences. Through the new method, the target DNA was amplified and visualized by two indicators within one minute at constant temperature of 63°C. They also tested the specificity of detection by trying the method in different kinds of plants. The result of the non-target samples were negative, which implied that the primer sets for the three GM rice varieties had optimal levels of specificity. The sensitivity of LAMP was also found to be greater than the traditional PCR methods. Based on these findings, the new detection method could be used as a simple field-based test to determine the status of GM crops.

Read the open-access article published at the International Journal of Molecular Sciences: http://goo.gl/pxO0q.