A proteomic analysis of seeds from Bt-transgenic Brassica napus and hybrids with wild B. juncea

Transgene insertions might have unintended side effects on the transgenic host, both crop and hybrids with wild relatives that harbor transgenes. We employed proteomic approaches to assess protein abundance changes in seeds from Bt-transgenic oilseed rape (Brassica napus) and its hybrids with wild mustard (B. juncea). A total of 24, 15 and 34 protein spots matching to 23, 13 and 31 unique genes were identified that changed at least 1.5 fold (p < 0.05, Student’s t-test) in abundance between transgenic (tBN) and non-transgenic (BN) oilseed rape, between hybrids of B. juncea (BJ) × tBN (BJtBN) and BJ × BN (BJBN) and between BJBN and BJ, respectively. Eight proteins had higher abundance in tBN than in BN. None of these proteins was toxic or nutritionally harmful to human health, which is not surprising since the seeds are not known to produce toxic proteins. Protein spots varying in abundance between BJtBN and BJBN seeds were the same or homologous to those in the respective parents. None of the differentially-accumulated proteins between BJtBN and BJBN were identical to those between tBN and BN. Results indicated that unintended effects resulted from transgene flow fell within the range of natural variability of hybridization and those found in the native host proteomes.