Quarantine Processing of Imported Transgenic Rice and Evaluation of Risk in Import

The germplasm of transgenics with desirable traits is being imported into the country for various research programmes. The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) is the nodal agency to issue the import permit, to undertake quarantine processing of germplasm including transgenics and also to ensure absence of embryogenesis deactivator gene. During 1997–2008, a total of 7,008 samples of transgenic rice with different traits from nine countries were processed at NBPGR for quarantine clearance. Of the total samples, 1,642 samples were found infested/infected with various pests from different countries. These comprised 1,548 from Singapore, 65 from Belgium, 16 from Vietnam, 7 from USA, 4 from China and 2 from the Philippines. The pests intercepted were insects viz., Cryptolestes ferrugineus, C. pusillus, Liposcelides spp., Rhizopertha dominica, Sitophilus oryzae, Sitotroga cerealella and Tribolium castaneum; nematode viz., Aphelenchoides besseyi; and pathogens viz., Alternaria alternata, A, padwickii, Drechslera halodes, D. rostrata, Fusarium dimerium, F. moniliforme and Phoma glumarum. All the infested and infected samples were salvaged using various techniques. Also the risk associated (literature-based) with the import of rice from source countries has been evaluated.

The samples were also tested to ensure the absence of cre recombinase gene (the gene sequence involved in one of the steps of terminator technology) using polymerase chain reaction with the designed primer pair and cre gene sequence was not detected in any of the tested samples.