Effects Of Exogenous Pea-Ferritin Gene On The Important Biological Features And Quality Characters Of Rice Using Near Isogenic Lines

In present study, we investigated the effects of exogenous pea ferritin gene (pea-fer) on the important biological properties of transgenic rice. A near isogenic line (NIL BC6F3), "Fer34-XS11" was obtained from donor parent (exogenous ferritin transgenic pure lines "Fer34") and recurrent parent (Oryza sativa ssp.japanica) ("XS11") with successive backcrossing by GUS.1. Several important biological properties were investigated completely using "Fer34-XS11" and "XS11". The major results were shown:(1) The introduction of exogenous gene (pea-fer) had no significant effect on germination rate and seedling leafing rate. (2) No significant changes were observed in the contents and composition of chlorophyll in leaves, but the net photosynthetic rate was dramatically enhanced in the transgenic rice. (3) Negative effect was found on neither major agronomic traits nor economic traits.2. The contents of major mineral elements, including Fe, Ca, Mn and Zn, were detected respectively.These mineral elements were extracted from various tissues (root, stem and leaf sheath) at different development stages (seedling, tillering and maturing) of the transgenic plant and grain. The results showed that the iron content of "Fer34-XS11" increased significantly in different organs, development stages as well as the grain, but no significantly difference was observed in other mineral elements (Ca, Mn and Zn) between "Fer34-XS11" and the wild type ("XS11").3. The quality characters and texture in the transgenic rice grain with Pea-Fer gene were determined. It was found that the traits i.e. chalkiness degree, transparency, gelatinization temperature, gel consistence and amylose content, between the two kinds of rice were similar, so did cooking and eating quality. In the aspect of nutritional quality, the iron content of "Fer34-XS11" was significantly increased but not in other mineral elements, protein and amino acid. Moreover, no difference were observed between "Fer34-XS11" and check in the RVA profile, texture, the structure and pattern of the amyloplasts with scanning electron microscopc. These results indicated that Pea-Fer gene in transgenic rice only improved the iron content, but could not cause the quality characters changes.All the results suggested that the exogenous gene(Pea-Fer) was highly expressed in transgenic rice with increasing the iron content of rice grains. Transferring the exogenous gene (Pea-Fer) did not result in significantly negative effect on the important biological properties and quality characters.The transgenic rice and its original parent had the same security. The result provided important information for further study and utilization of the new transgenic rich-iron rice.