Ecological Safety Assessments Of Transgenic Rice With Insect Or Virus Resistance On Their Non-Target Organisms

Biosafety of transgenic crops has been becoming a focus in the world. Concerns of biosafety of transgenic rice are necessary, because rice is one of major foods of human. Biosafety assessments should be systematically and scientifically conducted before the commercialization of transgenic rice. So, a series of laboratory and field experiments were carried out, in order to systematically evaluate the biosafety effects of different transgenic rice lines with insect resistance and virus resistance on their non-target organisms.1 Effects of different transgenic Bt rice lines on the feeding and oviposition behavior of the brown planthopperThe feeding and oviposition behavior of the brown planthopper (BPH) Nilaparvata lugens(Stal) on two homogenous lines of transgenic japonica rice with cry1Ab gene (KMD1 and KMD2),two homogenous lines of transgenic indica rice with cry1Ab/cry1Ac gene (TT9-3 and TT9-4) andanother two lines of transgenic indica rice with cry1Ab gene (B1 and B6) are measured, comparedwith those on their corresponding untransformed parental cultivar Xiushuil 1, IR72 and Jiazao935,respectively. Also, the feeding and oviposition behavior of BPH on one transgenic restoring line ofhybrid rice, MSA with SCK gene was measured together with its untransformed control,Minghui86. Under the selection condition of host plants by BPH, there were no significantdifferences in BPH loading percentages between different tested Bt rice lines and their controls.The probing wound numbers caused by BPH on different transgenic rice lines plant were differentunder the selection condition. However, the differences of probing wound numbers were almostnot significant between transgenic rice and untransformed control as well as the probing woundnumber caused by BPH under non-selection condition of hosts plants. Compared with theircorresponding untransformed controls, oviposition selection percentages of BPH on differenttested Bt rice lines were not significant. However, honeydew weights secreted by BPH afterfeeding on different tested Bt rice lines for 24 hours were significantly less than those on theircontrols.2 Effects of exogenous insect-resistant genes on the volatile organic compounds of different rice plantsVolatile organic compounds (VOC) in headspace of different Bt rice lines were collected by Solid phase microextraction (SPME), as well as their untransformed controls. Separation and identification of VOC was performed in a gas chromatogram linked mass spectrum (GC-MS) network system (Agilent, USA). The results showed that there were 24 kinds of different organic compounds in the headspace of transgenic japonica rice lines (KMDl and KMD2) as well as their control, Xiushuil 1. The relative content of each compound was not significantly different between Bt rice lines and the control, Xiushuil 1, except for 4 out of 24. As for transgenic indica rice lines TT9-3 and TT9-4, there were 25 organic compounds collected by SPME as well as their control, IR72. No significant differences were found between the relative content of each VOC of Bt rice lines and the control, IR72, except 1 out of 25. Similarly, the total ion current chromatograms obtained by SPME from the headspace of transgenic indica Bt rice lines, B1 and B6, were similar to that of the control, Jiazao935 rice plants. In conclusion, VOC of transgenic rice plant was not apparently impacted by exogenous insect-resistant gene.3 Effects of different transgenic Bt rice lines on the population of planthopper and leafhopper under field conditionsField studies, over multiple cropping seasons, were conducted at three different sites of Zhejiang Province to evaluate the impacts of a homozygous transgenic japonica rice line (KMD1), and a homozygous transgenic indica rice line (TT9-3), on their non-target sucking herbivores, including planthoppers and leafhoppers by the sampling methods of yellow sticky card, Malaise trap and vacuum-suction machine, compared with their non-transgenic parental controls (Xiushui11 and IR72, respectively). There were three planthopper species (Sogatella fu...