Analysis of vertical gene transfer from transgenic to nontransgenic plants of wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.)

During cultivation of transgenic wheat a vertical gene transfer is possible from genetically modified to usual varieties as a result of pollen transfer, subbing and formation of seeds, hybridous on transgenes. In field trials the authors demonstrated the vertical transfer of transgenes in spring wheat with moving away nontransgenic plants of the Andros variety at a distance of 1, 2 and 3 m from genetically modified plants of the same variety. The transgenic homozygous line used as a pollen donor contains the heterologous sequences of bar gene and gfp gene which encode resistance to herbicides and green fluorescent protein, respectively. In two-years study it was shown that the frequency of transgenes transfer depends on prevailing wind direction and remoteness of nontransgenic plants from transgenic ones. In the field investigations the frequency of vertical flow of transgenes to seeds of nontransgenic plants varied from 0.000 to 0.797 %. The transgenic status of hybridous seeds was confirmed by the resistance to used herbicide, the tissue fluorescence, the presence of transgene sequence in plant genome (the data of PCR and RT-PCR) and also by the specific inheritance of transgenes in the next seed generation. Such experiments were carried out for the first time in Russia.