Evaluation of metabolomics profiles of grain from maize hybrids derived from near-isogenic GM positive and negative segregant inbreds demonstrates that observed differences cannot be attributed unequivocally to the GM trait

Introduction: Past studies on plant metabolomes have highlighted the influence of growing environments and varietal differences in variation of levels of metabolites yet there remains continued interest in evaluating the effect of genetic modification (GM). Objectives: Here we test the hypothesis that metabolomics differences in grain from maize hybrids derived from a series of GM (NK603, herbicide tolerance) inbreds and corresponding negative segregants can arise from residual genetic variation associated with backcrossing and that the effect of insertion of the GM trait is negligible. Methods: Four NK603-positive and negative segregant inbred males were crossed with two different females (testers). The resultant hybrids, as well as conventional comparator hybrids, were then grown at three replicated field sites in Illinois, Minnesota, and Nebraska during the 2013 season. Metabolomics data acquisition using gas chromatography–time of flight-mass spectrometry (GC–TOF-MS) allowed the measurement of 367 unique metabolite features in harvested grain, of which 153 were identified with small molecule standards. Multivariate analyses of these data included multi-block principal component analysis and ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis. Univariate analyses of all 153 identified metabolites was conducted based on significance testing (α = 0.05), effect size evaluation (assessing magnitudes of differences), and variance component analysis. Results: Results demonstrated that the largest effects on metabolomic variation were associated with different growing locations and the female tester. They further demonstrated that differences observed between GM and non-GM comparators, even in stringent tests utilizing near-isogenic positive and negative segregants, can simply reflect minor genomic differences associated with conventional back-crossing practices. Conclusion: The effect of GM on metabolomics variation was determined to be negligible and supports that there is no scientific rationale for prioritizing GM as a source of variation.</p

Nitrate reductase transcript is expressed in the primary response of maize to environmental nitrate

The nitrate induction of NADH:nitrate reductase mRNA in maize roots, scutella and leaves was investigated in the presence and absence of inhibitors of protein synthesis. In the absence of inhibitors, nitrate treatment caused a fairly rapid (2 to 3 h) increase in the level of the nitrate reductase transcript in all tissues. When cytoplasmic protein synthesis was inhibited by cycloheximide, nitrate reductase mRNA was induced by nitrate in all tissues to levels equal to or greater than those found with nitrate treatment alone. Treatment of maize tissues with cycloheximide in the absence of nitrate had only a small effect on the accumulation of the nitrate reductase mRNA. Inhibition of organellar protein synthesis with chloramphenicol also had little or no effect on nitrate-induced nitrate reductase mRNA accumuiation in roots and scutella, but did appear to partially inhibit appearance of transcript in leaves. Excision of scutella in the absence of nitrate was sufficient to cause some accumulation of the nitrate reductase transcript. Since cytoplasmic protein synthesis was not required for expression of nitrate reductase transcripts, induction of these transcripts by nitrate is a primary response of maize to this environmental signal. Thus, it appears that the signal transduction system mediating this response is constitutively expressed in roots, scutella and leaves of maize. © 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers