Evaluation of transgenic nicotiana tabacum with deHe gene using transposon based IRAP markers

In the present study, five genetically modified herbicide tolerant Nicotiana tabacum cv. TAPM24 plants with a constructed vector pCAMBIA1301a carrying dehalogenase E (dehE) gene were compared with three non-transgenic controls using Tto1 retrotransposon specific IRAP markers. dehE gene was originally characterized in Rhizobium sp. and it produced an enzyme which degraded the Dalapon herbicide. IRAP protocol was applied on transgenic and non-transgenic plants to investigate the retrotransposon based genetic variation which may appear during transformation. Polymorphism rates were calculated as 0% - 20% from IRAP-PCR products among all plant samples. These results show that transformation of tobacco plant with the dehE gene may cause Tto1 retrotransposon alterations appearing as different band profiles. The findings are expected to contribute to genetic engineering studies to obtain better results and also to understand how transposons contribute to features such as transgenesis. In our knowledge, this is one of the first experimental data of transgenic N. tabacum engineered with dehE gene originated Rhizobium sp. in terms of retrotranposon based variation