Analysis of Junction Sequence in the Transgenic Maize MON88017 and the Methods of Qualitative PCR Detection

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to investigate the integration site of transgene in maize MON88017 and to establish event specific methods for qualitative detection of MON88017 based on the left border junction fragment, which was isolated with the amended GenomeWalker and Nested-PCR methods. Sequence alignment between the T-DNA sequence and isolated junction fragments showed a 504 bp junction fragment of MON88017 including 336 bp of T-DNA sequence and 168 bp of MON88017 genome DNA. MON88017 event-specific qualitative PCR method was established with the primers (MON88017-1F/R) targeting the junction regions to produce a 446 bp product. The limit of detection for qualitative PCR assay was 0.1%. The method developed in this work is highly specific, sensitive and suitable for MON88017 sample detection.