© 2006 Heron Publishing—Victoria, Canada
Assessment of Populus wood chemistry following the introduction of a Bt toxin gene
Mark F. Davis (1, 2), Gerald A. Tuskan (3), Peggy Payne (4), Timothy J. Tschaplinski (3) and Richard Meilan (5)
1. National Center for Bioenergy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA / 2. Corresponding author (mark_davis@nrel.gov) / 3. Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6422, USA / 4. Boise Cottonwood Fiber Farm, Boise Cascade LLC, P.O. Box 500, Wallula, WA 99363, USA / 5. Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Pfendler Hall, 175 W. State Street, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2061,
USA / Received January 20, 2005; accepted June 17, 2005; published online February 1, 2006
Summary
Unintended changes in plant physiology, anatomy and metabolism as a result of genetic engineering are a concern as more transgenic
plants are commercially deployed in the ecosystem. We compared the cell wall chemical composition of three Populus lines (Populus trichocarpa Torr. & A. Gray × Populus trichocarpa Bartr. ex Marsh., Populus trichocarpa × Populus nigra L. and Populus deltoides × Populus nigra) genetically modified to express the Cry3A or Cry3B2 protein of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) with the cell wall chemistry of non-transformed isogenic control lines. Three genetically modified clones, each represented
by 10 independent transgenic lines, were analyzed by pyrolysis molecular beam mass spectrometry, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
and traditional wet chemical analytical methods to assess changes in cell wall composition. Based on the outcome of these
techniques, there were no comprehensive differences in chemical composition between the transgenic and control lines for any
of the studied clones.
Keywords:
Bacillus thuringiensis, cell wall chemical composition, cottonwood, metabolic profiling, transgenes.
