Evaluation Of The Environmental Safety Of Transgenic Cotton

The environmental safety of transgenic cotton was evaluated in different ecotype regions of Jiangsu province, using transgenic Bt cotton, Sukang 310 and Simian 3 as control (non-transgenic cotton) m the present study. Firstly, the impact of transgenic cotton on soil invertebrate and non-target insects was analyzed. Compared with the non-transgenic cotton, the transgenic cotton reduced the diversity indexes and evenness of soil invertebrate and non-target insects and enhanced their dominanct concentrations of some soil invertebrate and non-target insects. These results indicated that transgenic Bt cotton destabilized the non-target insects and soil invertebrate community of cotton field and decreased the kinds and total numbers of soil invertebrate and non-target insects. Secondly, the Bt gene horizontal flow was detected with the ELISA method by measuring the Bt toxic protein in non-transgenic cotton plants transplanted in different directions and distances from transgenic cotton plants. The results showed that, under the present experimental conditions, Bt gene could flow horizontally to at least 50 m from transgenic cotton in every directions. Third, the total sugar and amino nitrogen contents of soil collected from different distances from roots and their relations to numbers of soil microorganisms were analyzed. Significant differences in total contents of soil sugar and amino nitrogen were observed both in different distances from root surface and in different stages of cotton growth. And also, the numbers of soil microorganism varied significantly in different distances from root surface. According to the results obtained in this experiment, it was suggested that the transgenic cotton has significant influences on environment.