Study Reveals Hybrid Stacking in Maize Do Not Contribute Unintended Effects

Researchers from Zhejiang University in China reported in GM Crops and Food that hybrid stacking does not contribute to unintended effects in the transcriptome and nutritional composition of transgenic maize.

Nutritional evaluation of GM crops is one of the key elements in safety assessment before commercialization. Profiling methods such as transcriptome analysis are usually used to gain supplemental information regarding the unintended effects of GM crops. Thus, the researchers examined the nutritional and transcriptome composition of stacked transgenic maize ZDRF8×nCX-1, which expresses five genes.

Based on their molecular analysis, it was shown that the insertion sites of target genes remained intact during stack breeding, and the target genes were effectively expressed at both RNA and protein. Further analysis showed that the GM maize exhibits tolerance to glyphosate, flazasulfuron, and MCPA, and is resistant to corn borer attack. Transcriptome analysis further revealed that the GM maize ZDRF8×nCX-1 did not significantly alter transcriptome profiles compared to the transgenic maize events ZDRF8 and nCX-1. Nutritional composition analysis also revealed that the grain profile of ZDRF8×nCX-1 was substantially equivalent to that of the non-transgenic counterpart.

Read the open-access article in GM Crops and Food.