A Survey on Transgenicity of various agricultural products in North-west of Iran

In order to provide the nutritional needs of the people and increase productivity in agriculture and gain high crop yields from existing cultivable lands while controlling pests and diseases, has led agricultural experts to use plant breeding methods and as the traditional methods are time consuming, therefore, with the help of genetic engineering, they have sought to transfer genes to plants to increase crop yield by creating resistance to pests and diseases and a variety of abiotic stresses. The engineered plants are called Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) or recombinant plants. On the other hand, some believe that man-made transgenic plants may be harmful and problematic for humans, and there are concerns in this regard in society. In many cases, products on the market are considered transgenic without sufficient reason. Obviously, it is possible to use genetic engineering to create transgenic plants with genes that are harmful and dangerous to humans for the purpose of bioterrorism. Therefore, field study and transgenicity of various products available in the market is necessary with the help of biotechnological and precise molecular methods. For this purpose, sampling (more than 100 samples) of different agricultural products from markets, fruit gardens and vegetable fields of different cities of East and West Azerbaijan in Iran was performed. After DNA extraction with CTAB buffer, their quantity and quality were evaluated and their functionality was confirmed by testing on the conserved house-keeping Actin gene. Four genes, a promoter and a terminator, common in plant transformation, were selected and their sequences were obtained from the NCBI and specific primers were designed for them. DNAs were used for PCR on these target genes. Their PCR results showed that the Cry, Hyg and Bar genes and the 35S promoter sequence and the Nos terminator sequence were not present in any of the samples. Among 112 tested samples, NptII gene was detected in 13 samples. This diagnosis alone cannot be a reason for the transgenicity of these samples, because this gene is also present in E. coli, and if a sample is infected or contaminated with it, when DNA is extracted, its genetic material is also extracted and shows positive in PCR test on bacterial DNA. The results of this study showed that, contrary to popular belief, the products on the market are not transgenic and people can consume them safely.