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The global area under commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM)
crops is increasing at a very fast pace. In India too, there has been
dramatic increase in commercial cultivation of Bt cotton.
There is an urgent need for upgrading the analytical methods for the GM detection
to check the authorized GM crops being cultivated and to solve the legal disputes
as well as to meet the labeling and international trade requirements. Diagnostic kits based on Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have been developed
for five GM crops. Bt cotton (Bollgard I) with cry1Ac
gene was the first GM crop to be commercialized in India in March 2002 and
Bt cotton (Bollgard II) with cry1Ac and cry2Ab for insect
resistance has also been commercialized. Revealing this at a Press Conference
in New Delhi today, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences,
Shri Kapil Sibal said that these diagnostic kits developed at NBPGR under
a collaborative research project funded by DBT are ready for commercial launch
and will be of immense use to meet the regulatory obligations and legal requirements
as well as helping to address the consumer concerns. The other four food crops viz.
Bt brinjal and Bt cauliflower
with cry1Ac gene, for insect resistance,
GM mustard with barnase/ barstar
gene for male sterility and GM tomato
with osmotin gene for drought and salinity
tolerance are either in field trials or in advanced stages of testing in contained
field trials. The kits can detect specific
transgenes, cry1Ac,
cry2Ab, barnase/ barstar, and osmotin gene, individually as well
as along with CaMV35S promoter and endogenous genes, Sad1 in cotton, SRK1 in
cauliflower, HMG in mustard, Lat52 in tomato.
Crop | Transgene/promoter/endogenous gene | Trait |
| Cotton (Bollgard
I) | cry1Ac/CaMV 35S/Sad1 | |
| Cotton (Bollgard
II) | cry1Ac & cry2Ab/CaMV 35S/ Sad1 | Insect resistance |
| Bt brinjal | cry1Ac/CaMV 35S | |
| Bt cauliflower | cry1Ac/CaMV 35S/ SRK1 | |
| Mustard | barnase & barstar/CaMV
35S/ HMG | Male sterility |
| Tomato | osmotin/CaMV 35S/ LAT52 | Salinity and drought tolerance |
The diagnostic
kits are reliable, sensitive and efficient, as more than one target sequences
can be detected in a single assay, the sensitivity
of the kits is upto 0.1%. They are user friendly and would require merely 4 hours time
to complete the assay from the DNA and 8-10 hours from the plant tissue. The kits are cost effective and the cost per assay
will range from Rs. 50 to 60 only. National Bureau of
Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi, has been designated
by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India as a Referral Centre for
Molecular Diagnosis of Transgenic Planting Material. PRA/SKK
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Rapid diagnostic kits for genetically modified traits
