文摘
Various countries have established regulations that stipulate the labeling of agricultural commodities, feed, andfood products that contain or are made from geneticallymodified (GM) material or that contain adventitious GMmaterial in amounts that exceed certain threshold levels.While regulations in some countries refer to GM materialon a weight per weight (w/w) percentage, the currentlyapplied detection methods do not directly measure thew/w percentage of the GM material. Depending on theparticular method and the sample matrix it is applied to,the conversion of analytical results to a w/w percentageis challenging or not possible. The first rapid PCR systemfor GM maize detection on a single kernel basis has beendeveloped. The equipment for the grinding of individualkernels and a silica membrane-based 96-well DNA extraction kit were both significantly revised and optimizedfor this particular purpose, respectively. We developed amultiplex real-time PCR method for the rapid quantification of GM DNA sequences in the obtained DNA solutions.In addition, a multiplex qualitative PCR detection methodallows for the simultaneous detection of different GMmaize traits in each kernel and thereby for identificationof individual kernels that contain a combination of two ormore GM traits. Especially for grain samples that potentially contain combined-trait GM maize kernels, the proposed methods can deliver informative results in a rapid,precise, and reliable manner.
