Scientists Compare Proteomic Profiles of MON810 Maize Varieties and their Non-GM Varieties

Profiling techniques have been suggested as a non-target approach to identify unintended effects in GM plants and other plant breeding procedures. Among the profiling techniques, proteomic analysis of tissues of interest is a direct method of identifying unpredicted alterations. Thus, Geisi Mello Balsamo and colleagues at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil, conducted a proteomic analysis of four Brazilian MON810 maize varieties and their four non-GM isogenic varieties.

The seedlings of the eight varieties were grown under controlled environmental conditions. They compared the physiological parameters of the plants, particularly the aerial part weight, main leaf length, chlorophyll, and total protein contents. Some differences were observed but these were not consistent between all GM and non-GM counterparts.

They also analyzed the leaf proteomic profiles of MON810 varieties and its counterparts. Twelve unique proteins were found in two out of the four maize variety pairs, and all these proteins were variety specific. Therefore, MON810 leaf proteomes of four varieties were similar to the non-GM counterparts.

Read the complete research article at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf202635r.