Environmental risk evaluation of the transgenic Brassica napus lines harboring serine acetyltransferase gene from Nicotiana tabacum

The commercial use of transgenic plants bears great potential in solving many environmental and food problems. However, the potential impact of transgenic plants on peripheral ecosystems has to be assessed before their release for commercial purposes. In this study, we performed environmental biosafety assessments on three independent single and a double overexpression lines harboring serine acetyltransferase ( SAT ) gene from Nicotiana tabacum ( Nt ). These lines have been previously demonstrated to confer tolerance against heavy metals (cadmium) and oxidative (hydrogen peroxide) stresses. We did two allelopathy bioassays (sandwich assays) to assess the potential impact of the transformants on the surrounding vegetation. We also surveyed the rhizosphere microbes to assess the potential impact of these transgenic lines on the microbial community (bacteria and fungi). Our data indicated that the transgenic lines are not significantly different from non-transgenic lines in terms of their impact on the surrounding vegetation and the rhizosphere microbe community under greenhouse conditions.