Characterization of directly transformed weedy Brassica rapa and introgressed B. rapa with Bt cry1Ac and gfp genes

Fitness changes in wild soybean caused by gene flow from genetically modified soybean

BACKGROUND

Crop-wild hybridization has generated great concerns since gene flow can be an avenue for transgene escape. However, a rather limited number of studies on risk assessment regarding the dispersion of transgenes from GM soybean to populations of its wild relatives have been previously conducted.

RESULTS

The results of the 3-year experiment demonstrated that hybrids between GM soybeans and wild soybean had lower seed germination and higher seed productivity than GM soybean. Both of these features of hybrid (especially F2 and F3) were similar to those of wild soybean. Furthermore, the foreign protein was stably expressed in hybrid EPSPS positive plants; however, no difference was observed in agronomic measurements between hybrids that are glyphosate sensitive or resistant, homozygous or heterozygous for the transgene, indicating that the presence of the EPSPS transgene does not affect the vigor of hybrid. In contrast, hybridization between GM soybean and wild soybean may have more impact on hybrid growth and fecundity, this increase in biomass and yield confers a potential competition benefit to hybrids.

CONCLUSIONS

Gene flow from GM soybean to wild soybean has the potential to promote the adaptability of hybrids and may increase the possibility of dispersal of transgenes in wild soybean relatives.

Interspecific Hybridization of Transgenic Brassica napus and Brassica rapa-An Overview

In nature, interspecific hybridization occurs frequently and can contribute to the production of new species or the introgression of beneficial adaptive features between species. It has great potential in agricultural systems to boost the process of targeted crop improvement. In the advent of genetically modified (GM) crops, it has a disadvantage that it involves the transgene escaping to unintended plants, which could result in non-specific weedy crops. Several crop species in the Brassica genus have close kinship: canola (Brassica napus) is an ancestral hybrid of B. rapa and B. oleracea and mustard species such as B. juncea, B. carinata, and B. nigra share common genomes. Hence, intraspecific hybridization among the Brassica species is most common, especially between B. napus and B. rapa. In general, interspecific hybrids cause numerous genetic and phenotypic changes in the parental lines. Consequently, their fitness and reproductive ability are also highly varied. In this review, we discuss the interspecific hybridization and reciprocal hybridization studies of B. napus and B. rapa and their potential in the controlled environment. Further, we address the fate of transgenes (herbicide resistance) and their ability to transfer to their progenies or generations. This could help us to understand the environmental influence of interspecific hybrids and how to effectively manage their transgene escape in the future.

Development of Transgenic Brassica Crops Against Biotic Stresses Caused by Pathogens and Arthropod Pests

The Brassica genus includes one of the 10 most agronomically and economically important plant groups in the world. Within this group, we can find examples such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, turnip or rapeseed. Their cultivation and postharvest are continually threatened by significant stresses of biotic origin, such as pathogens and pests. In recent years, numerous research groups around the world have developed transgenic lines within the Brassica genus that are capable of defending themselves effectively against these enemies. The present work compiles all the existing studies to date on this matter, focusing in a special way on those of greater relevance in recent years, the choice of the gene of interest and the mechanisms involved in improving plant defenses. Some of the main transgenic lines developed include coding genes for chitinases, glucanases or cry proteins, which show effective results against pathogens such as Alternaria brassicae, Leptosphaeria maculans or Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, or pests such as Lipaphis erysimi or Plutella xylostella.

One species to another: sympatric Bt transgene gene flow from Brassica napus alters the reproductive strategy of wild relative Brassica juncea under herbivore treatment

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Since pollen flow or seed dispersal can contribute to transgene persistence in the environment, the sympatric presence of transgenic crops with their wild relatives is an ecological concern. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that proximate growth of a herbivore-resistant Bt crop and wild relatives coupled with the presence of herbivores can increase relative frequency of crop-to-wild transgene flow persistence outside of cultivation.

METHODS

We conducted a field experiment using insect enclosures with and without herbivores with cultivated Bt-transgenic Brassica napus (Bt OSR) and wild brown mustard (Brassica juncea) in pure and mixed stands. Low-density diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) caterpillar infestation treatments were applied and transgene flow and reproductive organs were measured.

KEY RESULTS

Bt-transgenic B. napus produced more ovules and pollen than wild mustard, but the pollen to ovule (P/O) ratio in the two species was not significantly different. Low-level herbivory had no effects on fitness parameters of Bt OSR or wild brown mustard or on the transgene flow frequency. All progeny from wild brown mustard containing the Bt transgene came from mixed stands, with a gene flow frequency of 0.66 %. In mixed stands, wild brown mustard produced less pollen and more ovules than in pure stands of brown mustard. This indicates a decreased P/O ratio in a mixed population scenario.

CONCLUSIONS

Since a lower P/O ratio indicates a shift in sex allocation towards relatively greater female investment and a higher pollen transfer efficiency, the presence of transgenic plants in wild populations may further increase the potential transgene flow by altering reproductive allocation of wild species.

The presence of Bt-transgenic oilseed rape in wild mustard populations affects plant growth

The adventitious presence of transgenic plants in wild plant populations is of ecological and regulatory concern, but the consequences of adventitious presence are not well understood. Here, we introduced Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ac (Bt)-transgenic oilseed rape (Bt OSR, Brassica napus) with various frequencies into wild mustard (Brassica juncea) populations. We sought to better understand the adventitious presence of this transgenic insecticidal crop in a wild-relative plant population. We assessed the factors of competition, resource availability and diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) infestation on plant population dynamics. As expected, Bt OSR performed better than wild mustard in mixed populations under herbivore attack in habitats with enough resources, whereas wild mustard had higher fitness when Bt OSR was rarer in habitats with limited resources. Results suggest that the presence of insect-resistant transgenic plants could decrease the growth of wild mustard and Bt OSR plants and their populations, especially under high herbivore pressure.

Characterization of competitive interactions in the coexistence of Bt-transgenic and conventional rice

BACKGROUND

Transgene flow through pollen and seeds leads to transgenic volunteers and feral populations in the nature, and consumer choice and economic incentives determine whether transgenic crops will be cultivated in the field. Transgenic and non-transgenic plants are likely to coexist in the field and natural habitats, but their competitive interactions are not well understood.

METHODS

Field experiments were conducted in an agricultural ecosystem with insecticide spraying and a natural ecosystem, using Bt-transgenic rice (Oryza sativa) and its non-transgenic counterpart in pure and mixed stands with a replacement series.

RESULTS

Insect damage and competition significantly decreased plant growth and reproduction under the coexistence of transgenic and conventional rice. Insect-resistant transgenic rice was not competitively superior to its counterpart under different densities in both agricultural and natural ecosystems, irrespective of insect infection. Fitness cost due to Bt-transgene expression occurred only in an agroecosystem, where the population yield decreased with increasing percentage of transgenic rice. The population yield fluctuated in a natural ecosystem, with slight differences among pure and mixed stands under plant competition or insect pressure. The presence of Chilo suppressalis infection increased the number of non-target insects.

CONCLUSIONS

Plant growth and reproduction patterns, relative competition ability and population yield indicate that Bt-transgenic and non-transgenic rice can coexist in agroecosystems, whereas in more natural habitats, transgenic rice is likely to outcompete non-transgenic rice.

The effect of Bt-transgene introgression on plant growth and reproduction in wild Brassica juncea

This study aims to investigate the relative plant growth and reproduction of insect-resistant and susceptible plants following the introgression of an insect-resistance Bt-transgene from Brassica napus, oilseed rape, to wild Brassica juncea. The second backcrossed generation (BC2) from a single backcross family was grown in pure and mixed stands of Bt-transgenic and non-transgenic siblings under two insect treatments. Various proportions of Bt-transgenic plants were employed in mixed stands to study the interaction between resistant and susceptible plants. In the pure stands, Bt-transgenic BC2 plants performed better than non-transgenic plants with or without insect treatments. In mixed stands, Bt-transgenic BC2 plants produced fewer seeds than their non-Bt counterparts at low proportions of Bt-transgenic BC2 plants in the absence of insects. Reproductive allocation of non-transgenic plants marginally increased with increasing proportions of Bt-transgenic plants under herbivore pressure, which resulted in increased total biomass and seed production per stand. The results showed that the growth of non-transgenic plants was protected by Bt-transgenic plants under herbivore pressure. The Bt-transgene might not be advantageous in mixed stands of backcrossed hybrids; thus transgene introgression would not be facilitated when herbivorous insects are not present. However, a relatively large initial population of Bt-transgenic plants might result in transgene persistence when target herbivores are present.

Consequences of gene flow between oilseed rape (Brassica napus) and its relatives

Numerous studies have focused on the probability of occurrence of gene flow between transgenic crops and their wild relatives and the likelihood of transgene escape, which should be assessed before the commercial release of transgenic crops. This review paper focuses on this issue for oilseed rape, Brassica napus L., a species that produces huge numbers of pollen grains and seeds. We analyze separately the distinct steps of gene flow: (1) pollen and seeds as vectors of gene flow; (2) spontaneous hybridization; (3) hybrid behavior, fitness cost due to hybridization and mechanisms of introgression; (4) and fitness benefit due to transgenes (e.g. herbicide resistance and Bt toxin). Some physical, biological and molecular means of transgene containment are also described. Although hybrids and first generation progeny are difficult to identify in fields and non-crop habitats, the literature shows that transgenes could readily introgress into Brassica rapa, Brassica juncea and Brassica oleracea, while introgression is expected to be rare with Brassica nigra, Hirschfeldia incana and Raphanus raphanistrum. The hybrids grow well but produce less seed than their wild parent. The difference declines with increasing generations. However, there is large uncertainty about the evolution of chromosome numbers and recombination, and many parameters of life history traits of hybrids and progeny are not determined with satisfactory confidence to build generic models capable to really cover the wide diversity of situations. We show that more studies are needed to strengthen and organize biological knowledge, which is a necessary prerequisite for model simulations to assess the practical and evolutionary outputs of introgression, and to provide guidelines for gene flow management.

Spread of introgressed insect-resistance genes in wild populations of Brassica juncea: a simulated in-vivo approach

Introgression between transgenic, insect-resistant crops and their wild relatives could lead to a progressive increase of the frequency of resistant plants in wild populations. However, few studies help predict the impact on the population dynamics. To simulate the performance of introgressed insect-resistant plants of wild Brassica juncea, independently from the interspecific hybridization cost, healthy plants were cultivated in pure and mixed stands with damaged plants through cutting leaves in field experiments over two field seasons. As expected, resistant (healthy) plants held a competitive advantage when in competition with susceptible (damaged) plants. Individual biomass and seed production of both types of plants decreased as the percentage of resistant plants increased, so that the relative advantage of resistant plants increased. The combined effects of defoliation and competition on the individual performance of B. juncea were additive. Replacement series experiments confirmed this trend but did not show different seed output in pure stand of susceptible versus resistant plots. The total vegetative and reproductive production of mixed populations was not significantly different of that of pure populations. These results suggest that if a transgene for insect-resistance were to colonize wild populations, high herbivory of susceptible plant and low resource availability would facilitate the spread of resistant individuals. However, at the population level, the shift from an insect-susceptible to a predominantly resistant population would not result in exacerbated habitat colonization.

How genetic modification of roots affects rhizosphere processes and plant performance

Genetic modification of plants has become common practice. However, root-specific genetic modifications have only recently been advocated. Here, a review is presented regarding how root-specific modifications can have both plant internal and rhizosphere-mediated effects on aboveground plant properties and plant performance. Plant internal effects refer to pleiotropic processes such as transportation of the modified gene product. Rhizosphere-mediated effects refer to altered plant-rhizosphere interactions, which subsequently feed back to the plant. Such plant-soil feedback mechanisms have been demonstrated both in natural systems and in crops. Here how plant internal and rhizosphere-mediated effects could enhance or counteract improvements in plant properties for which the genetic modification was intended is discussed. A literature survey revealed that rice is the most commonly studied crop species in the context of root-specific transgenesis, predominantly in relation to stress tolerance. Phytoremediation, a process in which plants are used to clean up pollutants, is also often an objective when transforming roots. These two examples are used to review potential effects of root genetic modifications on shoots. There are several examples in which root-specific genetic modifications only lead to better plant performance if the genes are specifically expressed in roots. Constitutive expression can even result in modified plants that perform worse than non-modified plants. Rhizosphere effects have rarely been examined, but clearly genetic modification of roots can influence rhizosphere interactions, which in turn can affect shoot properties. Indeed, field studies with root-transformed plants frequently show negative effects on shoots that are not seen in laboratory studies. This might be due to the simplified environments that are used in laboratories which lack the full range of plant-rhizosphere interactions that are present in the field.

An efficient and rapid transgenic pollen screening and detection method using flow cytometry

Assaying for transgenic pollen, a major vector of transgene flow, provides valuable information and essential data for the study of gene flow and assessing the effectiveness of transgene containment. Most studies have employed microscopic screening methods or progeny analyses to estimate the frequency of transgenic pollen. However, these methods are time-consuming and laborious when large numbers of pollen grains must be analyzed to look for rare transgenic pollen grains. Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of a simple, rapid, and high throughput analysis method for transgenic pollen analysis. In this study, our objective was to determine the accuracy of using flow cytometry technology for transgenic pollen quantification in practical application where transgenic pollen is not frequent. A suspension of non-transgenic tobacco pollen was spiked with a known amount of verified transgenic tobacco pollen synthesizing low or high amounts of green fluorescent protein (GFP). The flow cytometric method detected approximately 75% and 100% of pollen grains synthesizing low and high amounts of GFP, respectively. The method is rapid, as it is able to count 5000 pollen grains per minute-long run. Our data indicate that this flow cytometric method is useful to study gene flow and assessment of transgene containment.

Genetic load and transgenic mitigating genes in transgenic Brassica rapa (field mustard) x Brassica napus (oilseed rape) hybrid populations

Background

One theoretical explanation for the relatively poor performance of Brassica rapa (weed) × Brassica napus (crop) transgenic hybrids suggests that hybridization imparts a negative genetic load. Consequently, in hybrids genetic load could overshadow any benefits of fitness enhancing transgenes and become the limiting factor in transgenic hybrid persistence. Two types of genetic load were analyzed in this study: random/linkage-derived genetic load, and directly incorporated genetic load using a transgenic mitigation (TM) strategy. In order to measure the effects of random genetic load, hybrid productivity (seed yield and biomass) was correlated with crop- and weed-specific AFLP genomic markers. This portion of the study was designed to answer whether or not weed × transgenic crop hybrids possessing more crop genes were less competitive than hybrids containing fewer crop genes. The effects of directly incorporated genetic load (TM) were analyzed through transgene persistence data. TM strategies are proposed to decrease transgene persistence if gene flow and subsequent transgene introgression to a wild host were to occur.

Results

In the absence of interspecific competition, transgenic weed × crop hybrids benefited from having more crop-specific alleles. There was a positive correlation between performance and number of B. napus crop-specific AFLP markers [seed yield vs. marker number (r = 0.54, P = 0.0003) and vegetative dry biomass vs. marker number (r = 0.44, P = 0.005)]. However under interspecific competition with wheat or more weed-like conditions (i.e. representing a situation where hybrid plants emerge as volunteer weeds in subsequent cropping systems), there was a positive correlation between the number of B. rapa weed-specific AFLP markers and seed yield (r = 0.70, P = 0.0001), although no such correlation was detected for vegetative biomass. When genetic load was directly incorporated into the hybrid genome, by inserting a fitness-mitigating dwarfing gene that that is beneficial for crops but deleterious for weeds (a transgene mitigation measure), there was a dramatic decrease in the number of transgenic hybrid progeny persisting in the population.

Conclusion

The effects of genetic load of crop and in some situations, weed alleles might be beneficial under certain environmental conditions. However, when genetic load was directly incorporated into transgenic events, e.g., using a TM construct, the number of transgenic hybrids and persistence in weedy genomic backgrounds was significantly decreased.

Plant fitness assessment for wild relatives of insect resistant crops

Risk assessments of new insect-resistant crops will need to estimate the potential for increased weediness of wild crop relatives as a consequence of gene flow. When field experiments are precluded by containment concerns, simulation experiments can identify hazards or measure expected differences between GMOs and parental plants. To measure plant fitness consequences of wild plant protection from Bt-susceptible herbivores, we used topical sprays of bacterial Bacillus thuringiensis larvacide (Bt) on Brassica rapa. Spontaneous crosses between B. rapa and Bt cole crops cannot be precluded, especially if adoption of Bt varieties leads to high exposure. We compared survivorship and seed output of B. rapa that were either protected from or exposed to Bt-susceptible Lepidoptera in the various conditions where hybrids are likely to occur: cultivated (disked) soil, uncultivated agricultural field margins, and nearby non-crop habitats (meadows and ruderal areas). The relative effect of herbivore protection varied among years, habitats, and populations of seedlings. In 2003-2004, Bt sprays did not result in lower herbivory on B. rapa, and plant fitness was not increased. However, in 2004-2006 B. rapa seedlings protected from Bt-susceptible herbivores lived 25% longer, on average, than those that were exposed to these herbivores. In addition, an average B. rapa seedling sprayed with Bt throughout its lifetime was twice as likely to produce siliques and had 251% of the seed output of a seedling exposed to herbivores. The fitness advantage of Bt-based plant protection was apparent in 2004-2005 in half the plants that experienced higher herbivory, and for 2005-2006, was more pronounced in agricultural habitats than in meadows with established, perennial vegetation and less disturbance. Positive effects of Bt-based plant protection and greater fitness in disturbed habitats suggest that crop-wild gene flow may benefit weed populations, and that field tests with herbivore exclusion/addition experiments are feasible alternatives when molecular containment of transgenes restricts field experiments with insect resistant crop-wild hybrids.