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CHANGES IN LEVELS, SPECIES AND DNA FINGERPRINTS OF SOIL MICROORGANISMS ASSOCIATED WITH COTTON EXPRESSING THE BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS VAR. KURSTAKI ENDOTOXIN
Citation:
Donegan, K., C. Palm, V. Fieland, L. Porteous, L. Ganio, D. Harris, L. Bucao, AND R. Seidler. CHANGES IN LEVELS, SPECIES AND DNA FINGERPRINTS OF SOIL MICROORGANISMS ASSOCIATED WITH COTTON EXPRESSING THE BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS VAR. KURSTAKI ENDOTOXIN. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-95/405, 1995.
Description:
An important aspect of the risk assessment of pesticidal transgenic plants is the potential for detrimental effects on the soil ecosystem from residual plant material following harvesting and tillage. he authors evaluated this concern by placing leaves of three different lines of cotton genetically engineered to produce the Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki (B.t.k.) endotoxin in soil and monitoring numbers and species of indigenous soil bacteria and fungi. our experiments, lasting 28 or 56 days, were performed using combinations of the following treatments: (1) soil only; (2) soil + purified B.t.k. toxin; (3) soil + parental cotton; (4) soil + purified B.t.k. toxin + parental cotton; (5) soil + B.t.k. toxin-producing cotton. he plant line specificity of the response, and the lack of effects from the purified B.t.k. toxins, suggest that the observed effects of the two transgenic plant lines on soil microorganisms may not have resulted from the plants' production of B.t.k. toxin. hey suggest that genetic manipulation or tissue culturing of the. plants may have produced a change in plant characteristics, aside from B.t.k. toxin production, that can influence growth and species composition of soil microorganisms.