Poster: Biotech Risk Assessment

Abs # 900: Quantitative PCR analysis for detection of genetically modified lines of soybean, maize, and potato

Presenter:	Lee, Theresa , tessyl1@rda.go.kr
Authors	Lee, Theresa  (A)   Kim, Young-Mi  (A)   Jeong, Soon-Il  (B)   Rho, Jae-Kyun  (A)   Kang, Sang-Ho  (A)   Ahn, Il-Pyung  (A)   Hino, Akihiro  (C)   Kim, Tae-San  (A)   Park, Yong-Hwan  (A)
Affiliations:	(A): National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Korea (B): National Agri-Products Quality Management Service, Korea (C): National Food Research Institute, Japan

To detect threshold of genetically modified (GM) crops in agricultural product, a couple of quantitative analysis methods have been developed for GM crops. Quantitative-competitive PCR (QC-PCR) requires construction of competitor DNA with deletion of internal region. Specific primers to amplify target gene and to amplify competitor DNA were designed for GM soybean and GM maize respectively. Analysis by QC-PCR was able to detect the threshold level (3%) of GM labeling of these crops in Korea. Recently analytical method using real-time PCR was developed to quantify GM crops. This method features in use of standard plasmid as reference molecule. Standard plasmid contains both a specific region of the transgene and an endogenous gene in the GM crop. The amount of GM crop was calculated by a ratio between copy number of transgene and copy number of endogenous gene in test sample. To validate the method, four labs in Korea and Japan carried out collaborative analysis for GM soybean, GM bean sprouts, and GM maize lines. Statistical analysis of the results supports reliability and useful application of this method for precise detection of GM crops. As a result, this method has been adopted as standard analytical method in Korea and Japan.