Inbred Seed - Are You Watching It?

Inbred seed lines are a vital link in seed corn production.   Genetic purity and quality can impact the success of your final product.  If you are producing your own inbred lines, releasing a "clean" (zero unintended events) line to the seed industry is now required, a genetic quality check program is now considered the norm to participate in the inbred development arena.

Many breeding companies are screening their inbred seed sources for non-approved events and adventitious presence of unintended traits.  The use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the best method to catch all events. PCR amplifies the number of DNA copies from a specific transgenic event or from an inserted section of DNA that has a transgenic event.  Different strategies are required for conventional and transgenic lines and the number of seed tested will impact the level of impurity testing.  For example, 3000 seeds tested will result in assurng the seed is below 0.15% GMO impurity at a 99% confidence level, whereas, 1200 seeds tested will result in assuring seed is below 0.38% GMO impurity at a 99% confidence level.

Conventional inbreds may need to be checked for any adventitious presence (AP) of transgenic traits.  This can be accomplished with a 35S and NOS (two common promoters and terminators in the transgenic insertion process) screen.  With an inbred containg an integrated trait,  the seed can be checked for events that have been pulled off the market (i.e. E176 and CBH351-cry9C) and/or for every trait other than the trait(s) integrated into the seed.  There are many additional options in determining AP that can be explored.  Please give Kalyn a call to discuss the options at 877-692-7611.

Kalyn Brix-Davis - DNA-Protein Laboratory Manager