Diversity of Microbial Community in a Paddy Soil with cry1Ac/cpti Transgenic Rice

Abstract

Two types of cry1Ac/cpti transgenic rice (GM1 and GM2) and their parental non-cry1Ac/cpti rice (CK1 and CK2) were planted in the field at Wufeng, Fujian Province, China for four years to investigate the influence of genetically modified rice on diversity of bacterial and fungal community in the paddy soil. The community composition and abundance of bacteria or fungi in the paddy soil were assessed at different growth stages of rice by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and real-time polymerase chain reaction based on 16S rRNA gene or SSU rRNA gene in the 4th year after the experimental establishment. The composition of bacterial or fungal community changed during rice growth, while no significant differences were observed between the fields cultivated with GM1 and CK1, or between the fields cultivated with GM2 and CK2 in either bacterial or fungal community composition. The copy numbers of bacterial 16S rRNA gene in the soils with CK1, CK2, GM1 and GM2 ranged from 5.64 × 1011 to 6.89 × 1011 copies g−1 dry soil at rice growth stages, and those of fungal SSU rRNA gene from 5.24 × 108 to 8.68 × 108 copies g−1 dry soil. There were no marked differences in the copies of bacterial 16S rRNA gene or fungal SSU rRNA gene between CK1 and GM1 or between CK2 and GM2 at any growth stage of rice. Planting cry1Ac/cpti transgenic rice had no significant effect on composition and abundance of bacterial and fungal community in paddy soil during the rice growing season at least in the short term.